EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689), as amended by the Digital Omnibus on AI (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744)

Summary

The AI Act is the EU's risk-based AI regulation. It entered into force on August 1, 2024; prohibited practices (including the ban on inferring emotions in the workplace, except for medical or safety reasons) and AI literacy duties have applied since February 2, 2025, and the general-purpose AI model rules and governance provisions since August 2, 2025. From August 2, 2026, the AI Office and national authorities enforce the Act, and the Article 50 transparency rules apply. The Digital Omnibus on AI (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744) amended the Act: political agreement May 7, 2026, Parliament position June 16, Council decision June 29, signed July 8, published in the Official Journal July 24 and in force July 27, 2026. It moves the high-risk obligations to December 2, 2027, for Annex III uses (which include credit scoring and, under point 4, AI used in recruitment, selection, promotion, termination, task allocation and performance monitoring) and to August 2, 2028, for AI in Annex I regulated products, adds a ban on AI systems that generate non-consensual intimate imagery or child sexual abuse material (applying from December 2, 2026), and gives existing systems until December 2, 2026, for the watermarking duty in Article 50(2). It also replaced the AI literacy article: providers and deployers must now take measures to support the development of their staff's AI literacy, without having to guarantee any specific level.

Key dates

1. August 1, 2024Key date
2. October 16, 2026Checked against sources
3. October 19, 2026Checked against sources
4. October 21, 2026Checked against sources

Developments are added when the record is reviewed. Next review: January 19, 2027.

Evidence

Each passage is quoted from its source. The quoted passages are re-checked against the live pages every month.

1. was adopted on 19 November 2025, a political agreement was reached on 7 May 2026 and entered into force on 27 July 2026

   Supports: Omnibus proposal, agreement and entry-into-force dates

   prohibited AI practices and AI literacy obligations entered into application from 2 February 2025

   Supports: Prohibitions from February 2, 2025

   the governance rules and the obligations for GPAI models became applicable on 2 August 2025

   Supports: GPAI from August 2, 2025

   From 2 August 2026, the AI Office and authorities of the Member States are responsible for implementing, supervising and enforcing the AI Act

   Supports: Enforcement from August 2, 2026

   Certain AI use-cases utilised to give access to essential private and public services (e.g. credit scoring denying citizens opportunity to obtain a loan)

   Supports: Credit scoring is a high-risk use (finance relevance)

   AI Act | Shaping Europe's digital future European Commission Primary source

2. The broader Article 50 transparency obligations, including the requirement to disclose to users when they are interacting with AI systems, remain unaffected and proceed as scheduled from 2 August 2026.

   Supports: Article 50 transparency from August 2, 2026

   The new prohibition is subject to a transitional period until 2 December 2026.

   Supports: New Article 5 ban applies from December 2, 2026

   AI systems that have been placed on the market before 2 August 2026 will benefit from a four-month grace period (until 2 December 2026) before the watermarking obligation under Article 50(2)

   Supports: Watermarking grace period

   EU AI Act Omnibus Agreement Gibson Dunn Reporting or analysis

3. On 7 May 2026, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU

   Supports: Provisional agreement May 7, 2026

   EU agrees Digital Omnibus deal to simplify AI rules White & Case Reporting or analysis

4. Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 July 2026 amending Regulations (EU) 2024/1689, (EU) 2018/1139 and (EU) 2023/1230

   Supports: Instrument number and signature date

   Position of the European Parliament of 16 June 2026 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 29 June 2026.

   Supports: Parliament June 16; Council June 29, 2026

   Done at Strasbourg, 8 July 2026.

   Supports: Signed July 8, 2026

   OJ L, 2026/1744, 24.7.2026

   Supports: Published July 24, 2026

   set to 2 December 2027 for AI systems classified as high-risk pursuant to Article 6(2) and Annex III, and to 2 August 2028 for AI systems classified as high-risk pursuant to Article 6(1) and Annex I

   Supports: New high-risk application dates

   Providers and deployers of AI systems shall take measures to support the development of AI literacy of their staff

   Supports: AI literacy duty replaced

   This obligation does not require providers or deployers to guarantee any specific level of AI literacy of any individual.

   Supports: AI literacy duty softened

   Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI) EUR-Lex (Official Journal of the European Union) Primary source

5. Published on: 7 May 2026

   Supports: Provisional agreement announced May 7, 2026

   Provisional agreement reached on the Digital Omnibus on AI Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (Ireland) Primary source

6. administrative fines of up to EUR 35 000 000 or, if the offender is an undertaking, up to 7 % of its total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher.

   Supports: Top penalty tier

   administrative fines of up to EUR 15 000 000 or, if the offender is an undertaking, up to 3 % of its total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher

   Supports: Middle penalty tier

   administrative fines of up to EUR 7 500 000 or, if the offender is an undertaking, up to 1 % of its total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher.

   Supports: Information penalty tier

   Article 99: Penalties artificialintelligenceact.eu (Future of Life Institute) Reporting or analysis

7. AI systems intended to be used for the recruitment or selection of natural persons, in particular to place targeted job advertisements, to analyse and filter job applications, and to evaluate candidates;

   Supports: Employment AI is high-risk (Annex III point 4(a)); read as browser page text, curl blocked by a WAF challenge

   the use of AI systems to infer emotions of a natural person in the areas of workplace and education institutions, except where the use of the AI system is intended to be put in place or into the market for medical or safety reasons;

   Supports: Workplace emotion-recognition prohibition

   Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 5(1)(f) EUR-Lex Primary source