It is a fact that if a barcode is of good quality, but only has bars that are too short, such a reduced code will eventually be read. However, reading such a code by a scanner often requires the cashier to perform additional manipulations with the product on which the code is placed: the cashier rotates the item over the scanner and changes the distance from its scanning window. Eventually, one of the scanner’s scanning lines crosses the entire width of the code and it is read. All this, however, leads to longer sales times, which in turn results in longer queues at checkouts, customer impatience, and financial losses for retail chains. Similar problems with reducing the height of code bars occur not only in Poland but all over the world. Therefore, at the request of national GS1 organizations and users, including GS1 Poland and JMD1, guidelines in the form of “Frequently Asked Questions” will be introduced into the “GS1 General Specifications”. These guidelines will include, for example, advice on what to do when there is no other option and the height of the code bars must be reduced. Research on the readability of reduced barcodes is also being conducted worldwide. On the initiative of the American GS1 organization, tests were carried out in the USA this year to determine whether the latest omnidirectional scanners currently in use have problems reading reduced barcodes.