Rules / European Union

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 amending Regulations (EU) 2024/1689, (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2023/1230 as regards the simplification of the implementation of harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Digital Omnibus on AI)

In forceRegulationBinding

Amends the AI Act: postpones high-risk obligations to 2 Dec 2027 (Annex III stand-alone systems) and 2 Aug 2028 (Annex I product-embedded systems), adds bans on AI that generates non-consensual sexual images of identifiable people or child sexual abuse material from 2 Dec 2026, and gives pre-Aug-2026 generative systems until 2 Dec 2026 to watermark outputs. It also softens the AI-literacy duty to 'take measures to support' literacy, allows processing of special-category data for bias detection, simplifies registration, extends SME relief to small mid-caps and moves national sandbox deadline to 2 Aug 2027.

Why it matters

This is the adopted outcome of the Nov 2025 omnibus proposal: high-risk compliance programmes get 16-24 more months, but Article 50 transparency still applied from 2 Aug 2026 and new prohibitions arrive in December 2026.

What it requires

Prohibited usesLabelling AI contentRisk classificationRegistration or filingData governanceRegulatory sandboxPenalties

Penalties

AI Act penalty regime applies (up to EUR 35 million or 7% of worldwide turnover for prohibited practices); lower caps for SMEs and small mid-caps.

SourceEUR-Lex (OJ L, 2026/1744, 24.7.2026): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202601744Secondary: https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/eu-ai-omnibus-enters-force-amending-ai-act Checked against the source on 4 Oct 2026. Commission proposal COM(2025) 836 of 19 Nov 2025; provisional political agreement 7 May 2026 (per Spanish government note); EP position 16 Jun 2026; Council decision 29 Jun 2026; signed 8 Jul 2026; OJ 24 Jul 2026; in force 27 Jul 2026 (third day after publication).

Cite this record

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 amending Regulations (EU) 2024/1689, (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2023/1230 as regards the simplification of the implementation of harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Digital Omnibus on AI). European Parliament and Council of the EU. Status: In force. wheresthe.ai, https://wheresthe.ai/rule/eu-digital-omnibus-ai-2026-1744/ (verified 4 Oct 2026).

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