Regulation (European Union)
EU AI Act
The EU AI Act is Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the European Union's law on artificial intelligence. It entered into force on 1 August 2024 and applies in stages: banned practices from February 2025, general-purpose AI model duties from August 2025, and most high-risk system obligations from August 2026. It applies to providers and deployers that place AI on the EU market.
Last reviewed 28 Oct 2026
Facts at a glance
| Official name | Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council source |
|---|---|
| Published in the Official Journal | 12 July 2024 source |
| Entry into force | 1 August 2024 source |
| Prohibited practices apply from | 2 February 2025 (Article 113) source |
| General-purpose AI model obligations from | 2 August 2025 (Article 113) source |
| Most obligations apply from | 2 August 2026 (Article 113) source |
| High-risk AI in regulated products (Annex I) from | 2 August 2027 (Article 113) source |
| Maximum fine for prohibited practices | EUR 35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher (Article 99) source |
| Supervising body for general-purpose models | European AI Office (European Commission) source |
Who the AI Act applies to
The regulation covers providers that place AI systems or general-purpose AI models on the EU market, deployers established in the EU, and providers and deployers outside the EU when the system's output is used in the EU (Article 2). It does not apply to systems used solely for military, defence or national security purposes, nor to research and development before a system is placed on the market.
Obligations depend on risk. A short list of practices is banned outright (Article 5), such as social scoring by public authorities and untargeted scraping of facial images. High-risk systems listed in Annex III, for example AI used in recruitment, credit scoring or critical infrastructure, must meet requirements on risk management, data governance, documentation, human oversight and accuracy before they are used. Limited-risk systems carry transparency duties, such as telling people they are interacting with AI or labelling synthetic content.
General-purpose AI models
Chapter V sets rules for general-purpose AI models, the category that covers large language models. Every provider must keep technical documentation, publish a summary of training content and comply with EU copyright law. Models classified as carrying systemic risk, which the regulation presumes when training compute exceeds 10^25 floating point operations (Article 51), must also run model evaluations, assess and mitigate systemic risks, report serious incidents and ensure cybersecurity. The European AI Office supervises these models directly.
Stories on this site that report a deadline, a Commission guideline, a code of practice or an enforcement action under the regulation link back to this page, and the timeline below lists them in date order.
Questions people ask
- When does the EU AI Act apply?
- It entered into force on 1 August 2024. Prohibited practices apply from 2 February 2025, general-purpose AI model obligations from 2 August 2025, most other obligations from 2 August 2026, and high-risk rules for AI built into regulated products from 2 August 2027 (Article 113 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689).
- Does the EU AI Act apply to companies outside the EU?
- Yes. Article 2 covers providers that place AI systems or models on the EU market wherever they are established, and providers and deployers in third countries when the output of the system is used in the EU.
- What are the fines under the EU AI Act?
- Article 99 sets fines of up to EUR 35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover for prohibited practices, up to EUR 15 million or 3% for most other breaches, and up to EUR 7.5 million or 1% for supplying incorrect information, in each case whichever is higher.