Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act)
The EU AI Act is a binding EU regulation establishing harmonised rules for the development, placing on the market, and use of AI systems across the European Union. It applies a risk-based approach: it bans certain 'unacceptable risk' AI practices, imposes detailed obligations on 'high-risk' AI systems, sets lighter transparency duties on limited-risk systems, and adds separate obligations for providers of general-purpose AI (GPAI) models. It applies to providers and deployers of AI systems placed on the EU market or whose AI output is used within the EU, regardless of where the provider is established.
The EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) is binding EU law, in force since August 2024, that regulates AI by risk tier: banning certain practices, imposing strict requirements on high-risk systems, and adding rules for general-purpose AI models. Deadlines have shifted, and some high-risk requirements were postponed to December 2027.
- Issuing body
- European Union (European Parliament and Council of the European Union)
- Official reference
- eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng
What it covers
- Article 5 prohibits specific 'unacceptable risk' AI practices, including social scoring, certain manipulative or exploitative systems, and untargeted scraping of facial images to build recognition databases
- Article 6 and Annex III define 'high-risk' AI systems, for example in employment, education, credit, and law enforcement contexts, which must meet requirements for risk management, data governance, technical documentation, human oversight, and conformity assessment before entering the market
- Article 50 sets transparency obligations for limited-risk systems, such as disclosing AI interaction and labeling deepfakes and AI-generated content
- Minimal-risk AI systems remain largely unregulated
- A separate chapter of obligations applies to providers of general-purpose AI (GPAI) models, with additional requirements for GPAI models classified as posing systemic risk
- Establishes the European AI Office and national market surveillance authorities for enforcement
- Article 99 sets maximum administrative fines of up to EUR 35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher, for violations of the Article 5 prohibitions
Adoption status
Adopted 13 June 2024 and entered into force 1 August 2024 as directly binding law across all EU member states, not voluntary guidance, with obligations phased in from February 2025 (prohibitions and AI-literacy duties) through August 2025 (GPAI and governance rules). In June 2026 the European Parliament and Council agreed a 'Digital Omnibus' package postponing most high-risk Annex III compliance deadlines from August 2, 2026 to December 2, 2027, and Annex I embedded high-risk systems to August 2, 2028; formal Official Journal publication was expected in July 2026 and current status should be independently reconfirmed.
Reference only. This page explains what EU AI Act covers; it is not a claim that Model Governance Index or any listed vendor satisfies it. Verify alignment directly against the issuing body's own current text before relying on it.
Sources. source 1 · source 2 · source 3. Data as of 2026-07-13. See methodology.