EAN international started its operations in 1974 when manufacturers and distributors of 12 European countries formed an ad-hoc council. Its brief was to examine the possibility of developing a uniform and standard numbering system for Europe, similar to the UCC system already in operation in the USA. As a result, a UCC compatible system called "European Article Numbering" (EAN) was created.

The actual EAN association was formed in February 1977. The new body was set up as a not-for-profit international association under Belgian law with a Brussels based Head Office. Its aim was and still in the development of a set of standards enabling the efficient management of global, multi-industry supply chains by uniquely identifying products, shipping units, assets, locations and services. It facilitates electronic commerce processes including full tracking and traceability.

The name was changed to EAN International in 1992.

Today EAN International has over 101 Member Organizations representing 141 countries. The system is used by nearly one million member companies worldwide. It involves 5'000'000'000'000 enhanced scanning transactions per day.

In Lebanon, EAN has been operational since 1996. The main objective was to provide Barcode services to industrial sectors to allow them to export their merchandise outside Lebanon and to follow the codification system approved and used internationally.