Developments in the marketplace for digital products have led to (a) the introduction of an "agency" model for the distribution of such products through the retail supply chain, and (b) an awareness of the need to deliver complete and accurate information to the supply chain about all aspects of the terms of supply that are applicable in a particular territory at a particular stage of a product life-cycle.

Thanks to timely action by the Metadata Committee of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), and in collaboration with an ad-hoc group representing BISG, the Association of American Publishers, the UK Publishers Association and EDItEUR, rapid provisions were made in ONIX for Books to allow for a standard means of communicating agency terms for e-book sales.

Code values are available in Code Lists Issue 12 (November 12, 2010) to address the new agency model requirements. To help companies implement these code values a "how to guide", with examples, is included in a BISG/BIC publication entitled "How to Specify Different Terms of Supply in Different Territories".

This business requirement is fully supported in both ONIX 2.1 and ONIX 3.0, and the guidelines and examples cover both releases. That said, the "how to guide" will also be helpful for those needing to specify different terms in different supply territories even if they are not adopting an agency model.