UCP for Print: PRINTING United Alliance, CIP4, and the Ghent Workgroup join the Initiative

Essen, 10. July 2026 – More and more organizations are backing the development of a
dedicated print vertical for Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), the upcoming standard
in AI-powered commerce. With the North American PRINTING United Alliance and the
international Ghent Workgroup, two more major organizations are now joining the initiative led
by IOP, BVDM, and Intergraf—following the recent additions of dpsuisse (Switzerland), VIGC
(Belgium), and the standardization organization CIP4. This European initiative is thus evolving
into a global effort aimed at anchoring the interests of the printing industry within Agentic
Commerce—and laying the foundation for Agentic Print.

 

The initiative to develop a print-specific industry standard for UCP was launched in May of this
year by Initiative Online Print (IOP), the German Printing and Media Association (BVDM), and
Intergraf, the European umbrella organization for national printing associations. As early as
June, three additional organizations joined: dpsuisse, the Swiss Association of the Print and
Media Industry; the independent Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication VIGC;
and CIP4, the international standards organization behind the JDF and XJDF print workflow
standards.

 

The Online Print Initiative e.V. (IOP) was founded in Düsseldorf in 2007 and is the leading association of the European online printing industry. Its current 61 member companies (as of July 2026) range from online print shops to software providers and equipment manufacturers. The board of directors includes Dominik Haacke (mediaprint solutions) and Roland Keppler (Roland Keppler Consulting); the chairman of the board is Bernd Zipper (CEO, zipcon consulting).
Learn more at www.initiative-online-print.de