4.1.1 Overview

The vending industry in key markets globally represents over 14 million machines and an annual estimated revenue of €80 billion.

Despite efforts to create and adopt common standards and protocols, the industry is fragmented and certain markets are more likely use particular vending machine interfaces, for historic and traditional reasons. This fragmentation leads to barriers and costs for machine and peripheral manufacturers, vending operators, as well as leading to integration problems within the machine. As the industry becomes more and more connected and in order to meet increased demand from consumers, the current situation can be considered no longer viable and hence a new specification is deemed to make the industry fit for the future.