Where it is
Central block, with the IPPC mark and control staple.
What it proves
Which licensed producer made the pallet, and when.
In detail
EPAL numbers this element 9 on its Euro pallet page. It is the producer-side counterpart to the ISPM 15 registration code: the IPPC mark tells a plant inspector who treated the wood, while the licence number tells the pool which EPAL licensee built the pallet.
Production date matters in two practical ways. First, EPAL made heat treatment compulsory for all new pallets from 1 January 2010, so a pallet with an earlier production date may predate the rule. Second, for box pallets EPAL's ratings changed over time (900 kg safe working load before 1990, 85 kg tare before 2011), so the year affects what the pallet is rated for.
EPAL does not publish a public register of licence numbers on the pages cited here; its website has a licensee search. Our stamp decoder reads the three groups and labels them, without claiming to validate the licence.
Common misreadings
- The year group can be short; read it together with the month rather than as a full four-digit year.