Sunrise 2027, explained for people who make things

What the 2027 goal actually says

GS1’s stated goal is that retail point-of-sale scanning should be, in its own words, “globally capable of reading and processing the GTIN” from both existing linear barcodes and 2D barcodes by the end of 2027. That sentence is about scanners, not about labels. It says that checkout lanes should be able to read the new thing. It does not say that anyone has to print it.

GS1 US calls the programme Sunrise 2027. GS1’s global materials mostly call it Ambition 2027 instead, and that is the more accurate of the two names for the same goal.

What it does not say

It is not a mandate, and GS1 could not issue one — it is a standards body, not a regulator. Nothing is legally required of a brand by this date.

Linear barcodes are not retired at the end of 2027 either. The guideline’s own transition rule is that until 90% of point-of-sale scanning solutions can use a retail 2D barcode and capture the GTIN from it, a product carrying a retail 2D barcode has to also carry a linear one. After 2027 a brand may use a 2D barcode only, both together, or the linear barcode only.

What the industry is doing is adding a capability to a schedule it already had. Nothing switches off at the end of it.

Why the deadline that matters is your next print run

The date that decides what a brand should do is not GS1’s. It is the next time artwork goes to a printer.

Adding a 2D code to a revision you were making anyway costs plates you were already changing. Adding it afterwards is a reprint that was not in the budget. Every month a brand waits, the odds rise that the change lands on a run it would otherwise have left alone — which is the whole of the argument, and it has nothing to do with 2027.

What the industry is actually doing

In June 2024, 22 companies with a combined market value above $1.5 trillion signed a joint statement supporting the transition, and GS1 reports pilots across 48 countries. That is a real signal about direction. It is not a commitment by any particular retailer to refuse your product, and nobody should sell it to you as one.

The things that create actual deadlines are trading-partner requirements and regulation, and those have dates of their own — some of them already past. We keep a list of the ones we have checked against the law itself: the regulatory deadlines, and which of them are actually law.