diff --git a/sdk/internal/sanitize.go b/sdk/internal/sanitize.go
deleted file mode 100644
index ff35185569d..00000000000
--- a/sdk/internal/sanitize.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,50 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
-//
-// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-// You may obtain a copy of the License at
-//
-//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-//
-// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-// limitations under the License.
-
-package internal // import "go.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdk/internal"
-
-import (
-	"strings"
-	"unicode"
-)
-
-const labelKeySizeLimit = 100
-
-// Sanitize returns a string that is trunacated to 100 characters if it's too
-// long, and replaces non-alphanumeric characters to underscores.
-func Sanitize(s string) string {
-	if len(s) == 0 {
-		return s
-	}
-	if len(s) > labelKeySizeLimit {
-		s = s[:labelKeySizeLimit]
-	}
-	s = strings.Map(sanitizeRune, s)
-	if unicode.IsDigit(rune(s[0])) {
-		s = "key_" + s
-	}
-	if s[0] == '_' {
-		s = "key" + s
-	}
-	return s
-}
-
-// converts anything that is not a letter or digit to an underscore
-func sanitizeRune(r rune) rune {
-	if unicode.IsLetter(r) || unicode.IsDigit(r) {
-		return r
-	}
-	// Everything else turns into an underscore
-	return '_'
-}
diff --git a/sdk/internal/sanitize_test.go b/sdk/internal/sanitize_test.go
deleted file mode 100644
index bf4ef37e212..00000000000
--- a/sdk/internal/sanitize_test.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,67 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
-//
-// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-// You may obtain a copy of the License at
-//
-//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-//
-// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-// limitations under the License.
-
-package internal
-
-import (
-	"strings"
-	"testing"
-)
-
-func TestSanitize(t *testing.T) {
-	tests := []struct {
-		name  string
-		input string
-		want  string
-	}{
-		{
-			name:  "trunacate long string",
-			input: strings.Repeat("a", 101),
-			want:  strings.Repeat("a", 100),
-		},
-		{
-			name:  "replace character",
-			input: "test/key-1",
-			want:  "test_key_1",
-		},
-		{
-			name:  "add prefix if starting with digit",
-			input: "0123456789",
-			want:  "key_0123456789",
-		},
-		{
-			name:  "add prefix if starting with _",
-			input: "_0123456789",
-			want:  "key_0123456789",
-		},
-		{
-			name:  "starts with _ after sanitization",
-			input: "/0123456789",
-			want:  "key_0123456789",
-		},
-		{
-			name:  "valid input",
-			input: "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_0123456789",
-			want:  "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_0123456789",
-		},
-	}
-
-	for _, tt := range tests {
-		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
-			if got, want := Sanitize(tt.input), tt.want; got != want {
-				t.Errorf("sanitize() = %q; want %q", got, want)
-			}
-		})
-	}
-}