In 2001, within OASIS, Jon Bosak, one of the inventors of XML markup language proposed the creation of a technical committee with the objective of creating a first set of business documents based on the CCTS (ISO 15000 part 5) to facilitate electronic business adoption tasks by companies and public administrations. This technical committee was called Universal Business Language.

The major advantages of this new approach to the world of electronic data interchange compared to existing models so far are that for the first time defines electronic documents according to the CCTS and secondly the TC will to produce an open standard, royalty-free and free of use. Those are the same conditions that led the Web to the success of adoption and the emergence of multiple uses and applications like browsers, publishers, booksellers, and so on.

After a 3-year effort the first version of UBL was released . This first version 1.0 of UBL was based on the preliminary work carried out by xCBL and leveraged the knowledge of UN / EDIFACT solving a basic eprocurement business process, defining the order , logistical documents and invoice.

This first version was used to develop many elements that have been crucial in the development of version 2.0. For example

• The naming and design rules ( NDR), which give names to define the components ,

• The mechanisms and devices that facilitate the transformation of XML documents into HTML or PDF readable by individuals,

• A dictionary of terms that allows international preservation the unique semantic components in different languages (Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Danish)

In addition to the development of these elements were also detected some technical problems or difficulties. Challenges that have not had a technical solution and who have faced and resolved in the second version of the standard. Basically:

• Treatment of code lists, its definition and validation, as well as mechanisms to its restriction based on specific business requirements, and
• Mechanisms for customization of the schemes in accordance with regulatory requirements sectoral and / or national, specifically, the rules of restriction and extension of the schemes.

In November 2006 UBL 2.0 was released. That new release resolves all these issues and further expands the UBL 1.0 eprocurement process with many new commercial transactions, and therefore new electronic documents. In addition, all the documents and components in UBL 1.0 have been reviewed to conform to European legislation in the area of procurement and electronic invoicing.

In May 2008 UBL 2.0 Errata 01 was approved by the OASIS UBL Technical Committee. 

In November 2013 UBL 2.1 was approvied by the OASIS UBL Technical Committee.