The barcode gets a memory.
It knows the batch and the expiry date.
By the end of 2027 checkouts across Europe are meant to read 2D barcodes. The largest retailers already do. It sounds like an IT topic, but the bill lands elsewhere: in short dated stock, in the cost of recalls, and in knowing nothing about the person who bought your product.
First UK supermarket to move an entire own label range onto 2D codes. They started with sausages. Carrefour is doing the same across its private label.
Share of GS1 UK members who had already rolled out GS1 powered QR codes by May 2025, with another 33 percent planning it within a year.
Unreadable code complaints logged by a supplier to Polish retailer Żabka over nine months in 2022. Three months after switching to 2D, the count was zero.
What happens when somebody scans this code
There is a real resolver running underneath, not a recording. Pick a situation or scan the code with your phone and you will see exactly what a shopper sees at the shelf.
Picks up the juice and scans the code
A product page opens in their language: ingredients, allergens, origin, the date from their own pack and sorting instructions. All on one screen.
You get contact with a buyer who is otherwise invisible to you when a retailer owns the sale.
Show what happens underneath+
The address held in the code and the server response. Pass this to your IT team.
HTTP ...Scan it with your phone. The same code serves the till and the shopper.
It is the same code in every situation. What changes is who scans it.
Situations rotate every few seconds. Click any of them to stop.
Three things that change immediately
Short dated stock
The expiry date travels inside the code, so the till can stop a sale or trigger a markdown three days before. Today that job belongs to someone walking the aisles with a clipboard.
Recalls
With a batch number in the code you pull that one batch. Without it the whole product line comes off every shelf, margin included.
The shopper after checkout
A phone scan leads to your page, in their language. No app to download, no second code on the pack.
Before somebody scares you with a deadline
Sunrise 2027 is not law. It is an industry ambition, and the linear barcode stays on packs until 90 percent of checkouts can read 2D. What is law is the product passport: from 18 February 2027 batteries above 2 kWh placed on the EU market need a passport reachable through a QR code, with textiles and tyres queued behind them. The infrastructure is the same in both cases, so one project settles both. Anyone selling you this as a legal obligation today is stretching the truth.
Where to start in your role
For brand owners and manufacturers
Right now there is a number sitting there that nobody reads. The same spot can carry something that works for as long as the product is on shelf.
For brandsFor retailers
A linear barcode carries one fact: which product this is. Everything else, the date and the batch, lives on paper and in the heads of the people on the shop floor.
For retailersFor agencies
Manufacturers are redesigning packaging for 2D codes and the product passport. The decision is made in packaging or supply chain, but the execution lands on the artwork.
For agenciesDates that matter
The checkout standard is ratified
GS1 signs off the guideline for 2D barcodes at point of sale. From then on there is nothing to wait for, only a decision to make.
Retailers leave pilot mode
Tesco moves an entire own label range onto 2D codes. Carrefour extends its rollout to more private label products.
The battery passport takes effect
The first hard deadline. EU law requires a passport reachable through a QR code for batteries above 2 kWh.
Target for checkout readiness
Tills worldwide are meant to read 2D codes. GS1 says full industry rollout will take until 2030 at the latest.
Questions we get most often
Will we have to replace our tills?+
Usually not. Retail scanners have handled 2D codes for years. The work sits in checkout software and in the system that needs somewhere to store a batch number and an expiry date.
Does the EAN barcode disappear?+
Not this decade. The standard keeps the linear barcode in place until 90 percent of checkouts can read 2D. Both will sit on the pack for years, and the artwork has to account for that.
How long does it take?+
A pilot on one product usually closes in a few weeks. Rolling it across a portfolio follows the rhythm of artwork changes, so think quarters rather than sprints.
Is it a legal requirement?+
Sunrise 2027 is not. The product passport is, and that is where the hard dates come from. Which is why we argue for one project rather than two.
Who on our side needs to be involved?+
Usually three people: someone from packaging, someone who owns product data and someone from systems. Marketing joins when the code should lead to campaign content rather than a plain product page.
Send us one code, we will send back an analysis
A photo of the pack or a sample of your product data is enough. We will tell you what is correct, what will break at the till and what is missing for the product passport. Expect a reply within a few working days.
The analysis is free and commits you to nothing. If it turns out you do not need this yet, we will say so.