When a National System has no record of a pack and try to verify or state change of a single pack, it will send Intermarket Transaction request. All intermarket transactions involve a single product pack and are relayed via the European Hub to a market that is able to fulfil the request on behalf of the initiating market. An intermarket request is processed as if it were being executed in the initiating market.

This page gives details on a simple happy path scenario of Intermarket Transaction Verify and Pack State Change(Update) process.

Following diagram gives simple message flow of Intermarket transaction Verify process

Intermarket Transaction Verify process diagram.

The following are the basic steps in Intermarket Transaction Verify process

1. The Initiating National system submits an intermarket verify pack request to the European Hub when the product or batch and pack are unknown. The following data is provided:

• Product Code & Product Code Scheme

• Product Batch Number

• Product Serial Number

• Batch Expiry Date

• Originating Location Code

Sample IMT Verify request from Initiating National System to Hub

2. On receiving an intermarket verification request from the initiating market, the European Hub evaluates which markets could fulfil the request and calculates the Europe wide product and batch state for the pack across all those markets. The Hub then submits the request to a randomly selected market from those that could fulfil the request and returns the result from that market.

The following data was supplied:

• Product Code & Product Code Scheme

• Product Batch Number

• Product Serial Number

• Batch Expiry Date

• Originating Location Code

• Originating Market

• Europe Wide Product Batch State

Sample IMT Verify request from Hub to Fulfilling National System

3. The Fulfilling National System returns the internal state of the product pack to the European Hub with the following data

• Pack State

• Market of Change

• Location of Change

• Time of Change

Sample response from Fulfilling National System to Hub

4. The Hub returns the internal state of the product pack to Initiating National System with the following data.

• Pack State

• Market of Change

• Location of Change

• Time of Change

Sample response from Hub to Initiating National System

Following diagram gives simple message flow of Intermarket Transaction Pack State Change process

Intermarket Transaction Pack State Change process diagram

The following are the basic steps in Intermarket Transaction Pack State Change process

1. The Initiating National System sends a message to the European Hub to change the state of a pack when the product or batch and pack are unknown.

The following data is provided:

Sample IMT Update request from Initiating National System to Hub

2. On receiving an Intermarket pack state change request from the Initiating National System the European Hub evaluates which markets could fulfil the request and calculates the Europe wide product and batch state for the pack across all those markets. The Hub then submits the request to a randomly selected market from those that could fulfil the request and returns the result from that market.

The following data is provided:

Sample IMT Update request from Hub to Fulfilling National System

3. The Fulfilling National System evaluates and applies the pack state change returns the internal state of the product pack with the following data

Sample response from Fulfilling National System to Hub

4. The Hub returns the updated state of the product pack to Initiating National System with the following data.

Sample response from Hub to Initiating National System

CR 7285 change between 20191 and 20221 Schema

Currently when an IMT request is made to change the state of a pack, the Hub checks the EU wide Product and Batch state for the pack and if the pack is RECALLED, WITHDRAWN or EXPIRED it converts the state change request into a verify request in order the confirm that the pack has not already been decommissioned. However, this also means that some A7 (Pack Already in Requested State) or A24 (Status Change Could Not be Performed) alerts for attempts to change the pack state (where either the batch or product are also not active) don't get raised in the fulfilling system.

Following section explains the message flow in 20191 Schema for below scenario

Step 1: Initiating National System request to Hub for update the pack state to EXPORTED.

Step 2: Hub calculates the EU wide State of the pack based on Product State, Batch State and Market State. In this case the EU wide State is WITHDRAWN and Hub converts the Pack State Change Request to Pack Verify Request and send it to Fulfilling National System.

Step 3: Fulfilling National System responds to Hub with the current state of the pack

Step 4: Hub then sends the fault response to Initiating National System with Alert A24 - Status Change Could Not be Performed.

To avoid the Pack State Change request conversion to Pack Verify request a new mandatory field EU Wide Product Batch state (productBatchState) being introduced to IMT requests from Hub to the Fulfilling National System. With this change the Hub will no longer convert an IMT State Change to a Verify when the Product or Batch are not Active Europe wide. This change introduced to new 20221 Schema only.

Following section explains the message flow in 20221 Schema for below scenario

Step 1: Initiating National System request to Hub for update the pack state to SUPPLIED.

Step 2: Hub calculates the EU wide State of the pack based on Product State, Batch State and Market State. In this case the EU wide State is WITHDRAWN and Hub sends the Pack State Change Request to Fulfilling National System.

Step 3: Fulfilling National System updates the pack state to SUPPLIED and responds to Hub with Pack State Change Results (New Pack State is SUPPLIED)

Step 4: Hub then sends the successful Pack State Change results to Initiating National System