The European Commission announced on 31 July that, from 2 August 2026, the AI Office and national market-surveillance authorities would begin enforcing the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, moving the world's first comprehensive AI law from paper rules into active enforcement.
The first live obligations are the Article 50 transparency duties. Interactive AI systems such as chatbots must clearly tell users they are interacting with a machine rather than a human. AI-generated or altered content — including so-called deepfakes — must be labelled, and machine-readable markers must be embedded so such content can be detected downstream. Breaches can attract fines of up to €15 million or 3% of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher.
The Commission published a list of more than 190 organisations that have signed the Code of Practice on the Transparency of AI-Generated Content, which it confirmed as adequate evidence of Article 50 compliance. Separately, the Digital Omnibus on AI (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744), which entered into force on 27 July, defers standalone high-risk obligations to 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028.
The Commission said the guidance phase is over: providers of general-purpose AI models are now subject to supervision backed by enforcement powers rather than grace periods.
Source: European Commission, 31 July / 2 August 2026.
