GS1 Sunrise 2027: The QR Code Mandate Explained

📅 Last updated: June 2026. This page is updated as new retailer mandates are announced and as the December 2027 deadline approaches.

What is GS1 Sunrise 2027?

GS1 Sunrise 2027 is a global industry initiative requiring retailers to have point-of-sale systems capable of scanning and processing 2D barcodes by December 31, 2027. It is led by GS1, the international non-profit standards body that created the original barcode in 1974. It is not a government law. No regulator enforces it. Retailers and their supplier agreements do.

The name follows GS1 tradition. "Sunrise 2005" was the earlier initiative that brought the EAN barcode to North American checkouts. Sunrise 2027 does the same for 2D codes: it moves retail checkout from the 50-year-old 1D stripe barcode to QR codes and DataMatrix codes that can hold far more data.

This is already well past the concept stage. Per GS1, pilots are running in 48 countries representing 88% of world GDP. Consumer behavior supports the shift too. In a 2025 GS1 US consumer survey, 79% of consumers said they are more likely to purchase a product when a QR code provides additional information. A further 77% said product information is important to their purchase decision, and 62% said they would pay more for a product that offers it.

The December 31, 2027 deadline - what is actually required

The minimum requirement is narrow and specific: by December 31, 2027, retail POS systems must be able to read a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) contained in a 2D barcode. Two symbologies qualify: a QR code carrying a GS1 Digital Link URI, or a GS1 DataMatrix code.

The deadline formally targets retailers and their scanning hardware and software. Brands and suppliers inherit the requirement through their retail relationships. A retailer that has upgraded its scanners will expect suppliers to put a compliant 2D barcode on the pack, and after December 31, 2027, retailers are no longer obligated to support products labeled with only a 1D barcode.

Two things the deadline does not require. It does not ban the UPC or EAN on that date; dual marking is the recommended transition approach. And it does not require every product to carry expiry dates or batch numbers in the code; the GTIN alone meets the minimum. Richer data is the opportunity, not the obligation.

Which retailers are mandating it

Walmart, Target, Carrefour, Tesco, Woolworths, Kroger, Dillard's and Safeway are all setting 2D barcode requirements for their suppliers. Walmart has already communicated requirements to certain supplier categories ahead of the 2027 deadline. That matters because individual retailer timelines can land earlier than the GS1 date, and a supplier agreement is binding in a way an industry initiative is not.

The practical advice for any supplier: check what your specific retail customers have published. A brand selling into Walmart and Kroger should treat the earliest retailer requirement, not December 2027, as its real deadline. This page is updated as new retailer mandates are announced.

What is GS1 Digital Link?

GS1 Digital Link is an ISO/GS1 standard that turns a product's GTIN into a web-native URI. Instead of a barcode that only a checkout scanner understands, the product identity becomes a web address that any system, and any smartphone, can read.

A GS1 Digital Link URI looks like this:

The "01" is the GS1 Application Identifier for GTIN, and the 14-digit number that follows is the GTIN itself. The standard can also append qualifiers: batch or lot number (AI 10), expiry date (AI 17) and serial number (AI 21). Everything a supply chain needs to identify a specific unit fits into one structured URL.

Encode that URI in a QR code and one symbol does four jobs at once. A POS scanner decodes the URI, extracts the GTIN and rings up the sale. A warehouse system reads the batch number for traceability. A regulator or recall system reads the expiry and lot data. And a shopper points a phone camera at it and lands on a web page with product information, allergen data, sustainability claims or recall notices. One code on the pack replaces what previously took a barcode plus a separate marketing QR code.

GS1 Digital Link QR code vs GS1 DataMatrix - which do you need?

Both symbologies are accepted under Sunrise 2027, and they are complementary rather than competing. The choice comes down to who needs to scan the code and how much space the packaging has.

QR code with GS1 Digital Link is the choice for consumer-facing retail products. Any smartphone camera app can scan a QR code natively, so the same symbol that works at checkout also works for consumer engagement. For most food, beverage, CPG and general merchandise brands, this is the right answer.

GS1 DataMatrix is preferred, and in some cases mandatory, for healthcare, pharma and small packaging. It uses an L-shaped finder pattern instead of the QR code's three corner squares, so it fits in tighter spaces. It is already mandatory for pharmaceuticals under the US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and the EU Falsified Medicines Directive. The trade-off: standard phone camera apps do not read DataMatrix codes natively, so it is a supply chain and regulatory symbol, not a consumer one.

Many companies use both: DataMatrix on pharma and healthcare lines, QR with GS1 Digital Link on retail consumer goods. If shoppers should be able to scan it, choose QR. If you are wondering how consumers scan in practice, see our guide to the best QR code scanner apps or try our free online QR code scanner.

Who is affected and how urgently?

Any brand sold through major retail channels is affected. The urgency varies by industry.

• Food, beverage and CPG are the most immediately impacted. These categories gain the most from 2D data: expiry dates, batch and lot numbers, allergen information, recall data and sustainability claims, all encoded or linked from the pack. They are also the categories where retailers like Walmart and Kroger are moving first.
• Healthcare and pharma already operate under serialization rules. DSCSA in the US adds requirements beyond the Sunrise 2027 baseline, and GS1 DataMatrix is already the norm. For these companies, Sunrise 2027 is mostly about aligning retail-facing products with what regulated lines already do.
• Apparel and general merchandise face the same retailer requirements, with the added consumer-engagement upside of product authentication, care information and resale data.
• Direct-to-consumer-only brands have no POS scanner to satisfy, so there is no hard requirement. Adopting GS1 Digital Link anyway keeps retail distribution open as an option.

On timing: packaging and product data changes take 18 to 36 months to implement across a product line. A brand starting in mid-2026 has roughly 12 to 18 months before the deadline. That is enough, but only if the work starts now. A brand that waits until 2027 to begin will not make it on a normal packaging change cycle.

How to prepare - the crawl-walk-run approach

GS1 US recommends a phased adoption path rather than a single big-bang packaging change. It breaks into three stages.

Crawl. Add a 2D barcode containing your GTIN to existing packaging, alongside the current UPC or EAN. If your packaging already carries a marketing QR code, verify that it follows the GS1 Digital Link standard and includes your GTIN; most existing marketing codes do not. Dual marking keeps every scanner in your supply chain working during the transition.

Walk. Add more data to the 2D barcode: expiry dates, batch and lot numbers, product variants. This is where supply chain traceability and automated markdown or recall workflows start paying for the change.

Run. Use the full 2D capability: consumer engagement pages that respond to the specific batch or unit scanned, supply chain optimization, regulatory reporting and sustainability disclosure from the same code that runs checkout.

For the crawl stage, the practical checklist looks like this:

1. Confirm your GTINs are licensed through GS1 and your product data is accurate.
2. Decide on symbology per product line: QR with GS1 Digital Link for retail consumer goods, DataMatrix for healthcare and tight packaging.
3. Choose where the Digital Link URI will resolve, and who manages that destination.
4. Plan dual-marked artwork and slot it into your next packaging refresh.
5. Test printed codes with your retailers' scanners and with ordinary smartphones before mass production.

A regular QR code vs a GS1 Digital Link QR code - a critical distinction

Visually, the two are identical. The QR code itself is the same ISO/IEC 18004 symbol in both cases. The difference is entirely in what the code contains.

A regular marketing QR code, like those produced by most free generators, encodes a plain URL. A phone opens it as a web page, but a retail POS system cannot extract a product identity from it. It cannot be used for checkout, inventory or traceability.

A GS1 Digital Link QR code encodes a structured URI following GS1 standard syntax, with the product's GTIN embedded in the path. POS systems and supply chain software can parse that URI and pull out the GTIN, while phones still open it as a normal link.

The consequence for brands: if your packaging already has a QR code on it, do not assume you are covered. Check whether the encoded URL follows GS1 Digital Link syntax and includes your GTIN. If it is a plain campaign URL or a link-shortener address, it will not satisfy a Sunrise 2027 retailer requirement, no matter how well it scans on a phone.

How to create a GS1 Digital Link QR code

Creating one takes two ingredients: a GTIN licensed through your local GS1 member organization, and a tool that constructs the Digital Link URI correctly. Standard QR code generators, including ours, encode whatever URL you give them; they do not validate GS1 Digital Link syntax or manage GTIN resolution. For packaging that must pass retailer scanning requirements, use a GS1 Digital Link-aware tool or a GS1 member service, and test the output against the GS1 standard before printing.

That said, most brands need both kinds of QR code. Product packaging gets the GS1 Digital Link code; marketing materials, shelf displays, business cards and campaign assets still use regular QR codes. For those, our free URL QR code generator creates codes with no signup, no watermark and no expiry, and the vCard QR code generator handles contact-sharing codes for sales and trade show teams. For placement, sizing and testing practices that apply to any QR code, packaging included, see our guide on how to use QR codes effectively.

A useful habit while you prepare: scan your own existing packaging codes with a phone or our QR code scanner and look at the decoded URL. If it does not start with a domain followed by /01/ and a 14-digit GTIN, it is a marketing code, not a Digital Link code.

Frequently asked questions

Is GS1 Sunrise 2027 a law?

No. Sunrise 2027 is a global industry initiative led by GS1, the international standards body, not a government regulation. There are no legal penalties for missing the deadline. The pressure comes from retailers: Walmart, Target, Carrefour, Tesco, Kroger and others are writing 2D barcode requirements into their supplier agreements, and after December 31, 2027 retailers are no longer obligated to support products carrying only a 1D barcode.

What is the exact deadline for Sunrise 2027?

December 31, 2027. By that date, retail point-of-sale systems should be able to scan and process 2D barcodes, specifically reading a GTIN from a QR code with a GS1 Digital Link URI or from a GS1 DataMatrix code. Individual retailers may set earlier dates for their own suppliers.

Do 1D barcodes (UPC/EAN) go away in 2027?

Not immediately. During the transition, GS1 recommends dual marking: keep the existing UPC or EAN barcode on the pack alongside the new 2D code so every scanner in the supply chain keeps working. After December 31, 2027, retailers are no longer obligated to support products labeled with only a 1D barcode, so the 2D code becomes the safe baseline.

What is a GS1 Digital Link QR code?

It is a standard QR code that encodes a web URI structured to the GS1 Digital Link standard, for example https://id.example.com/01/09312345678907, where 01 is the Application Identifier for GTIN and the 14-digit number is the product's GTIN. POS systems can extract the GTIN from that URI for checkout and inventory, while a smartphone camera opens the same code as a normal web link.

Can I use a regular QR code generator for Sunrise 2027 compliance?

Not on its own. A standard QR code generator encodes whatever URL you give it. For Sunrise 2027 the encoded URI must follow GS1 Digital Link syntax and contain your GTIN, which requires a licensed GTIN from GS1 and either a GS1 Digital Link-aware tool or a GS1 member service to construct and resolve the URI. A regular generator is still the right tool for marketing QR codes that sit alongside the barcode.

Should I use a QR code or a GS1 DataMatrix?

Both are accepted under Sunrise 2027. A QR code with GS1 Digital Link is preferred for consumer-facing retail products because any smartphone camera can scan it. GS1 DataMatrix is preferred, and in pharma often mandatory, for healthcare and small packaging because it is more compact and is already required under the US DSCSA and the EU Falsified Medicines Directive.

Which retailers are mandating 2D barcodes?

Walmart, Target, Carrefour, Tesco, Woolworths, Kroger, Dillard's and Safeway are all setting supplier requirements for 2D barcodes. Walmart has already communicated requirements to certain supplier categories ahead of the 2027 deadline. Pilots are running in 48 countries representing 88% of world GDP.

How long does it take to prepare for Sunrise 2027?

Packaging and product data changes typically take 18 to 36 months to implement across a product line. Brands starting in mid-2026 have roughly 12 to 18 months of runway before the December 31, 2027 deadline, which is sufficient but leaves little slack. GS1 recommends a phased crawl-walk-run approach.

What information can a GS1 Digital Link QR code carry?

At minimum it carries the GTIN (Application Identifier 01). It can also encode batch or lot number (AI 10), expiry date (AI 17) and serial number (AI 21) as qualifiers. The web link itself can resolve to product information, allergen data, recall notices, sustainability claims or anything else the brand publishes.

Does Sunrise 2027 affect small brands?

Yes, if the product is sold through major retail channels. Retailer supplier requirements apply regardless of brand size. Small brands selling only direct-to-consumer or through channels without POS barcode scanning are not directly affected, but adopting GS1 Digital Link early keeps the door open to retail distribution later.

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