Let's be honest, the barcode has never been the star of the packaging conversation. It sits quietly at the bottom corner of the pack, does its one job at the till, and nobody thinks about it again. Design teams argue over color, structure, and finish. Regulatory teams argue over claims and warnings. The barcode just... beeps.
That is about to change.
By the end of 2027, retailers around the world are expected to have point-of-sale systems ready to scan 2D barcodes, not just the familiar 1D lines we have used since the 1970s. GS1 calls this milestone Sunrise 2027, and it is the biggest shift in product identification in decades. If you work anywhere near packaging, artwork, or product content, it is worth understanding now, not in Q4 2027 when everyone else starts panicking.
Nobody is getting fined the day after the sunrise date. Sunrise 2027 is best understood as a global readiness target, not a regulation. GS1 is essentially asking the whole ecosystem, brands, retailers, and everyone in between, to aim for the same finish line so that 2D barcodes work everywhere, not just in the stores that happen to be ready.
But "not mandatory" does not mean "safe to ignore." Several major retailers are already asking suppliers for 2D-ready artwork ahead of the deadline, and scanner upgrades are already underway in some markets. The brands who wait for a mandate that technically never arrives are the ones who will find themselves scrambling when a retailer partner sets its own earlier deadline.
A traditional 1D barcode has one job. It says "this is Product X" and hands off a GTIN to the till. That is it. A 2D barcode, built on GS1 Digital Link, can carry the GTIN plus batch numbers, expiration dates, recall information, and a direct link to rich product content, all from a single scan.
During the transition, most brands will run dual marking, meaning both a 1D and a 2D code sit on the same pack while retailers catch up at their own pace. Nobody is asking you to rip out your existing barcode. They are asking you to add a much smarter one alongside it.
That sounds simple until you think about what it actually takes to keep a 2D barcode's linked content accurate. Every time an ingredient changes, a formulation updates, or a market-specific regulation shifts, someone has to update the artwork, the regulatory copy, the translations, and now also the live digital content the barcode points to. And it has to match, in every market, in every language, indefinitely.
Here is the part that does not show up in most of the barcode explainers doing the rounds right now. Sunrise 2027 is not primarily a design challenge or a print challenge. It is a governance challenge.
Before a single new QR code goes on a pack, someone needs to answer some unglamorous but essential questions. Which SKUs already carry a 2D code, and which need one added? Where does 2D genuinely add value for the consumer or the supply chain, and where would it just be decorative? And critically, once that code is live, how do you make sure the artwork approval process and the content it links to never drift apart, across every SKU, every market, forever?
That last question is the one that catches teams out. A 2D barcode is only as trustworthy as the content behind it. If the artwork gets updated but the linked product page does not, or vice versa, you have created a compliance and brand trust problem that is far harder to spot than a smudged 1D code ever was.
This is exactly the pattern our own European team is seeing play out with clients right now. As Isabelle Billerey-Raye, DALIM's Packaging Production and Marketing Content Production Expert, puts it:
"In our conversations with brands and packaging teams across Europe, GS1 Sunrise 2027 is not being viewed in isolation. Companies are already dealing with a rapidly changing packaging environment, with regulations such as PPWR, growing compliance requirements, more product data and increasingly complex artwork changes across multiple markets. What we hear is that brands don't want GS1 2027 to become yet another separate packaging project. The real challenge, and opportunity, is to connect product data, regulatory information and artwork into one controlled process, so that changes can flow through to the right packaging, be checked and approved, and reach production with full traceability."
The teams that will handle this calmly are the ones treating it as a data governance exercise from day one, not a last-minute artwork scramble.
That starts with visibility. You need a clear, accurate picture of which SKUs already carry a QR or 2D code, which ones are candidates, and where the underlying product data actually lives. From there, the real work is making sure your artwork and approval process can track that information end to end, so a change to an ingredient, a claim, or a regulation flows through to every affected SKU and market instead of getting caught in someone's inbox.
This is where a governed digital asset management setup earns its keep. When artwork, approvals, and version history live in one system with a full audit trail, it becomes far easier to see exactly what changed, when, and who approved it, which matters just as much for your own compliance record-keeping as it does for the barcode itself. DALIM FUSION already validates and reads barcodes as part of its packaging preflight checks, so on-shelf accuracy gets caught before a file goes to print rather than after a reprint bill lands. For teams managing this across manufacturing brands or regulated healthcare packaging, that same governed, audit-ready structure is exactly what supports your own compliance obligations as 2D content requirements multiply.
None of this is a reason to panic about 2027. It is a reason to get your artwork governance in order well before it becomes urgent.
Sunrise 2027 is not the end of this story, especially in pharma and increasingly in wider consumer goods. Digital Product Passports raise the stakes further, with live batch data, instant recall notices, and patient or consumer information that can update without a repack. If your team sits anywhere near regulated packaging, it is worth having this on your radar now rather than treating it as a separate project later.
Is GS1 Sunrise 2027 a legal requirement? No. It is a global industry readiness target set by GS1 for retail point-of-sale systems to be able to scan 2D barcodes by the end of 2027. It is not a law, though individual retailers may set their own earlier requirements.
Do I need to remove my existing 1D barcode? No. During the transition, dual marking is standard practice, meaning both a 1D and a 2D barcode appear on the same pack. Traditional barcodes are expected to remain scannable well beyond the sunrise date.
What is GS1 Digital Link? It is the standard that turns a 2D barcode into a working web link, connecting a single scan to product information such as batch numbers, expiration dates, and consumer-facing content, rather than just a static product identifier.
What should packaging and marketing teams do first? Start by mapping which SKUs already carry a 2D code, identifying where 2D genuinely adds value, and making sure your artwork and approval workflow can track and update the linked content as reliably as it tracks the artwork itself.
1 min read
Rebecca Freeman : Jul 27, 2026, 1:01:20 PM
Every pharma packaging team has lived through some version of the same bad afternoon. The artwork went through creative, through legal, through...
1 min read
Rebecca Freeman : Aug 11, 2026, 3:21:14 PM
A recalled batch of packaging rarely starts with a design mistake. It usually starts with a regulatory detail that got missed somewhere between the...
1 min read
Rebecca Freeman : Sep 14, 2026, 12:03:16 PM
Six years ago, a mid-size beauty brand might have run 40 SKUs across two markets. Today, that same product category often means 200 SKUs, five...
Rebecca Freeman