EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689)

European Union comprehensive The EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) entered into force on 1 August 2024. It creates harmonised rules for placing AI on the EU market; applies to EU and third-country providers and deployers placing AI systems on the EU market; centres on a risk-based approach; prohibits certain AI practices and imposes specific requirements on high-risk systems; and creates harmonised transparency rules. 2 Feb 2025 — prohibitions on unacceptable-risk practices and the AI literacy obligation applied. 2 Aug 2025 — obligations for general-purpose AI models, governance provisions, penalties architecture and member-state notification/surveillance authority designation applied. 2 Aug 2026 — Article 50 transparency obligations apply, with penalties of up to €15m or 3% of worldwide annual turnover. Enforcement is split: national market surveillance authorities enforce most of the Act; the AI Office supervises general-purpose AI models and systems built on them by the same provider. 10 Jul 2025 — General-Purpose AI Code of Practice published The final GPAI Code of Practice — three chapters covering transparency, copyright, and safety & security — was published after input from 1,400+ stakeholders, and formally approved by the Commission and AI Board on 1 August 2025. Formally voluntary, it is the presumptive route to demonstrating compliance with Articles 53 and 55; most major model providers signed. European Commission — General-Purpose AI Code of Practice <https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/contents-code-gpai> 2 Aug 2025 — GPAI obligations apply Providers of general-purpose AI models placed on the market from this date must comply immediately. Commission enforcement powers (information requests, model access, recalls) become exercisable from 2 August 2026. Models placed on the market before 2 August 2025 have until 2 August 2027 to comply. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act) — Official Journal <https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj>

2 Aug 2026 — Article 50 transparency obligations apply — and enforcement begins The date held. Providers and deployers must disclose: direct human–AI interaction; AI-generated or manipulated content (machine-readable marking); emotion recognition and biometric categorisation; and deepfakes and AI-generated text published on matters of public interest. These duties are not limited to high-risk systems and survived the Omnibus substantially intact — they are now the AI Act's operative compliance frontier, backed by penalties of up to €15m or 3% of worldwide turnover. On the same date the AI Office and national market surveillance authorities began enforcing the Act, and the Commission published a first list of more than 180 organisations that have signed the Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content. Transitional relief is narrow: content published before 2 August 2026 need not be retrospectively labelled, and only the marking-and-detection duty for generative systems already on the market is deferred, to 2 December 2026. European Commission — Commission starts enforcing AI Act rules and new transparency requirements on 2 August (31 Jul 2026) <https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-starts-enforcing-ai-act-rules-and-new-transparency-requirements-2-august> European Commission press release IP/26/1714 — AI Act enforcement and transparency rules <https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1714>

29 Jul 2026 — Germany's KI-MIG enters into force — the largest designation gap closes The KI-Marktüberwachungs- und Innovationsförderungsgesetz (KI-MIG), Germany's AI Act implementation statute, entered into force the day after publication. The Bundestag passed it on 11 June 2026 and the Bundesrat cleared it on 10 July 2026 without calling the mediation committee. Germany opted for a hybrid model rather than a new agency: the Bundesnetzagentur becomes the central market surveillance authority, single point of contact and complaints office outside regulated sectors, with sectoral regulators retained in their own domains. For the most sensitive high-risk categories — biometric systems used in law enforcement, border management and the administration of justice or democratic processes — an independent three-member KI-Marktüberwachungskammer sits within the BNetzA, operating with full independence and reporting annually to the Bundestag. Germany had missed the August 2025 designation deadline by nearly a year; it is now supervised three days before Article 50 applied. Bundesministerium für Digitales und Staatsmodernisierung — Gesetz zur Durchführung der KI-Verordnung (KI-MIG) <https://bmds.bund.de/service/gesetzgebungsverfahren/gesetz-zur-durchfuehrung-der-ki-verordnung>

24 Jul 2026 — Digital Omnibus published in the Official Journal as Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 Publication in the OJ on 24 July 2026 fixed the amendments in law — the first formal amendment of the AI Act since its adoption in June 2024. Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI) — Official Journal <https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/1744/oj> 27 Jul 2026 — Digital Omnibus on AI enters into force Three days after publication the amending Regulation took effect. Annex III stand-alone high-risk obligations move from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027; Annex I embedded high-risk systems move from 2 August 2027 to 2 August 2028 — fixed dates rather than the standards-contingent trigger the Commission originally proposed. The Omnibus also adds new prohibitions on placing on the market or using AI systems designed to generate child sexual abuse material or non-consensual sexual or intimate imagery — applying from 2 December 2026, not on entry into force; rewrites the Article 4 AI literacy duty from an obligation to ensure a sufficient level into an obligation to take measures to support it, still binding on every deployer and subject to national supervision from 3 August 2026; and broadens the AI Office's supervisory role over general-purpose AI models, aligning parts of it with the Digital Services Act model. Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI) — Official Journal <https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/1744/oj>