§ EU AI Act · Article 50
AI Act Article 50: Obligations, Deadlines & Penalties
At a glance
Article 50 of the AI Act imposes 13 obligations on AI Office, deployer, provider. At least one obligation carries an explicit compliance deadline.
§ Obligations
All obligations under Article 50
Obligation 1
Providers shall ensure that AI systems intended to interact directly with natural persons are designed and developed so that users are informed they are interacting with an AI system, unless this is obvious from the point of view of a reasonably well-informed person.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
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provider
- Action required
-
inform
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
- Exemptions
- AI systems authorised by law to detect, prevent, investigate or prosecute criminal offences (unless available for public reporting), or where interaction is obvious.
Obligation 2
Providers of AI systems generating synthetic audio, image, video or text content shall ensure outputs are marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
provider
- Action required
-
mark
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
- Exemptions
- Systems performing assistive functions for standard editing, not substantially altering input data/semantics, or authorised by law for criminal offence detection/prevention/investigation/prosecution.
Obligation 3
Providers shall ensure their technical solutions for marking synthetic content are effective, interoperable, robust and reliable as far as technically feasible, considering content specificities, costs, and state of the art.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
provider
- Action required
-
ensure
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
Obligation 4
Deployers of an emotion recognition system or a biometric categorisation system shall inform the natural persons exposed thereto of the operation of the system.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
deployer
- Action required
-
inform
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
- Exemptions
- AI systems permitted by law to detect, prevent or investigate criminal offences, subject to appropriate safeguards.
Obligation 5
Deployers of an emotion recognition system or a biometric categorisation system shall process personal data in accordance with Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) 2018/1725 and Directive (EU) 2016/680, as applicable.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
deployer
- Action required
-
process
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
Obligation 6
Deployers of an AI system that generates or manipulates image, audio or video content constituting a deep fake shall disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
deployer
- Action required
-
disclose
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
- Exemptions
- Use authorised by law to detect, prevent, investigate or prosecute criminal offences.
Obligation 7
Where deep fake content forms part of an evidently artistic, creative, satirical, fictional or analogous work, transparency obligations are limited to disclosure of the existence of such generated or manipulated content in an appropriate manner that does not hamper display or enjoyment.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
deployer
- Action required
-
disclose
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
Obligation 8
Deployers of an AI system that generates or manipulates text published with the purpose of informing the public on matters of public interest shall disclose that the text has been artificially generated or manipulated.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
deployer
- Action required
-
disclose
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
- Exemptions
- Use authorised by law for criminal offences, or where content underwent human review/editorial control and a person holds editorial responsibility.
Obligation 9
The information referred to in paragraphs 1 to 4 shall be provided to the natural persons concerned in a clear and distinguishable manner at the latest at the time of the first interaction or exposure.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
provider
- Action required
-
provide
- Deadline
-
at the latest at the time of the first interaction or exposure
- Penalty
-
—
Obligation 10
The information referred to in paragraphs 1 to 4 shall be provided to the natural persons concerned in a clear and distinguishable manner at the latest at the time of the first interaction or exposure.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
deployer
- Action required
-
provide
- Deadline
-
at the latest at the time of the first interaction or exposure
- Penalty
-
—
Obligation 11
The information provided to natural persons shall conform to the applicable accessibility requirements.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
provider
- Action required
-
conform
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
Obligation 12
The information provided to natural persons shall conform to the applicable accessibility requirements.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
deployer
- Action required
-
conform
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
Obligation 13
The AI Office shall encourage and facilitate the drawing up of codes of practice at Union level to facilitate the effective implementation of the obligations regarding the detection and labelling of artificially generated or manipulated content.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50, Article 50
- Obligated entity
-
AI Office
- Action required
-
encourage
- Deadline
-
—
- Penalty
-
—
§ Deadlines
EU AI Act compliance deadlines
-
2025-02-02
Article 5 prohibitions (unacceptable risk)
in_force
-
2025-02-02
Article 4 AI literacy
in_force
-
2025-08-02
GPAI model obligations (Articles 51 to 56)
in_force
-
2026-07-27
Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI) enters into force — AI Act applies as amended
in_force
-
2026-08-02
AI Act general date of application (Art 113) — governance, penalties and remaining provisions without a different date
in_force
-
2026-08-02
Article 50 transparency obligations (AI-interaction disclosure, labelling of deepfakes and AI-generated text, emotion-recognition notices)
in_force
-
2026-12-02
Article 50(2) machine-readable marking of AI-generated content — transition for generative AI systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026
scheduled
-
2026-12-02
NEW Article 5 prohibition: AI generation of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) and CSAM
scheduled
-
2027-08-02
National AI regulatory sandboxes: at least one operational per Member State (Art 57(1))
scheduled
-
2027-12-02
Annex III stand-alone high-risk obligations
scheduled
-
2028-08-02
Annex I embedded (regulated-product) high-risk obligations
scheduled
§ Frequently asked
Questions about Article 50
Who must comply with Article 50 of the AI Act?
+
AI Office, deployer, provider.
What does Article 50 of the AI Act require?
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inform mark ensure
What is the compliance deadline for AI Act Article 50?
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at the latest at the time of the first interaction or exposure