Rules / European Union

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act)

Partly in forceRegulationBinding

Risk-based EU law that bans certain AI practices, imposes conformity, documentation and oversight duties on high-risk AI systems, transparency duties on chatbots and generative AI, and separate duties on general-purpose AI (GPAI) model providers. It applies to providers, deployers, importers and distributors whose AI systems are placed on the EU market or whose outputs are used in the EU.

Why it matters

Any company selling or using AI in the EU must already comply with the bans, AI-literacy and GPAI rules and, since 2 Aug 2026, the Article 50 transparency rules, with high-risk obligations now due 2 Dec 2027 (Annex III) and 2 Aug 2028 (Annex I).

What it requires

Risk classificationProhibited usesTransparency to usersLabelling AI contentRegistration or filingImpact assessmentHuman oversightIncident reportingData governanceCopyright and training dataFrontier model safetyRegulatory sandboxPenalties

Penalties

Up to EUR 35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover (prohibited practices); up to EUR 15 million or 3% for most other breaches; GPAI providers up to EUR 15 million or 3%.

SourceEUR-Lex (Official Journal of the EU): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/ojSecondary: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai Checked against the source on 4 Oct 2026. Published OJ 12 Jul 2024; in force 1 Aug 2024. Phases as amended by the Digital Omnibus on AI (Reg. 2026/1744): 2 Feb 2025 prohibitions + AI literacy; 2 Aug 2025 GPAI obligations, governance, penalties; 2 Aug 2026 Article 50 transparency, Commission GPAI enforcement powers and general application; 2 Dec 2026 two new prohibitions; 2 Dec 2027 Annex III high-risk; 2 Aug 2027 GPAI models placed before Aug 2025 must comply and national sandboxes due; 2 Aug 2028 Annex I (product-embedded) high-risk; 2 Aug 2030 legacy public-sector high-risk systems.

Cite this record

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act). European Parliament and Council of the EU (implemented by the European Commission AI Office and national authorities). Status: Partly in force. wheresthe.ai, https://wheresthe.ai/rule/eu-ai-act-2024-1689/ (verified 4 Oct 2026).

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