Identification
EAN/UPC
European Article Number / Universal Product Code
The classic 1D barcode found on retail packaging since the 1970s — encodes a GTIN and nothing else.
EAN-13 (Europe and ROW) and UPC-A (North America) are the linear barcodes scanned at supermarket tills. Both encode a GTIN — a unique product identifier issued by GS1.
1D barcodes hold very little data and cannot carry a URL, batch number, expiry or serial. That limit is exactly why GS1 standardised the Digital Link in QR / Data Matrix: one machine-readable carrier that does both the legacy POS scan and the consumer web experience.
The current GS1 'Sunrise 2027' initiative is the industry-wide migration from EAN/UPC to GS1 Digital Link 2D barcodes at retail.