The EPC standardization work is being conducted by EPCglobal, which is owned by UCC and EAN, responsible for standardizing barcodes. UCC and EAN were involved in the instigation of the Auto-ID Center, and the work completed by the Center is now being commercially standardized by them. EPCglobal will be funded by new sponsorship tiers, which will be necessary to be actively involved in the standardization process. EPCglobal will initially finance the Auto-ID Labs, but then they will seek their own sources of funding.
Programmes within Auto-ID Labs will look into further application areas, as much of the work finally focused around the supply chain and retailing, but now application areas under consideration include pharmaceutical and baggage tagging.
For more information, the EPCglobal website is www.epcglobalinc.org.