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ICD

International Code Designator. The 4-digit ISO/IEC 6523 code identifying the issuing authority of an organisation identifier — GS1, DUNS, SIRET, etc.

Definition

The ICD is a 4-digit numeric code defined by ISO/IEC 6523-1:1998 ("Structure for the identification of organizations and organization parts"). It qualifies an organisation identifier by stating which issuing authority granted it. Without an ICD, the number 5550010 could designate a GLN, a partial SIRET, or an internal ERP identifier; with ICD 0088, it is known to be a GS1 GLN. The official maintenance agency of the ICD registry is the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova, hosting the registry per ISO 6523.

Origin

Published in 1984 and revised in 1998, ISO 6523 was designed so that several organisation-identification schemes can coexist in the same electronic exchange without collision. A few ICDs commonly encountered in the EDI world: 0088 GS1 GLN, 0160 GS1 GTIN, 0060 Dun & Bradstreet DUNS, 0009 French SIRET, 0192 Norwegian national organisation number. The PEPPOL network relies heavily on ICDs to identify recipients (iso6523-actorid-upis:: prefix).

Example in context

Inside an EDIFACT NAD segment, the ICD is carried by element 3055 ("Code list responsible agency, coded"):

The trailing 9 states that 3012345000003 follows the GS1 convention — value 9 being UN/EDIFACT's mapping of ICD 0088 in code list 3055. In a PEPPOL BIS 3.0 message, the same identifier would read iso6523-actorid-upis::0088:3012345000003.

  • GLN — the identifier qualified by ICD 0088.
  • GTIN — the identifier qualified by ICD 0160.
  • NAD — the EDIFACT segment carrying a qualified identifier.
  • Qualifier — the generic concept of which ICD is an instance.

Last updated: May 13, 2026