Your code is exempt. Your UI isn't.

The European Commission adopted its guidelines on the implementation of the transparency obligations under Article 50 of the AI Act on 20 July 2026, together with a Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content — thirteen days before those obligations start applying on 2 August 2026.

Why it mattersSets the lead time. Thirteen days is the whole argument for building to the article text rather than waiting for guidance, and it is the pattern to expect for the 2027 and 2028 high-risk deadlines too.

europeancom2026guideline · europeancom2026press

The Article 50 machine-readable marking obligation does not apply to source code, to short sequences of numbers, symbols or letters, to machine-to-machine outputs without human exposure, to outputs used only in closed-loop industrial and product development environments, or to systems performing an assistive function for standard editing.

Why it mattersThis is the carve-out that decides whether a coding agent is in scope at all. The code an agent emits is exempt from marking; almost nothing else the product does is. It reframes the compliance question from 'do we watermark generated code' to 'which of our surfaces did we forget to classify'.

europeancom2026faq

Article 50(1) requires providers of AI systems that interact directly with natural persons to make the AI nature known, where the interaction is a genuine two-way exchange. The exception for cases where it is obvious the person is interacting with an AI is to be interpreted in a restrictive manner, assessed against a reasonably well-informed, circumspect and observant average person.

Why it mattersMost teams assume a developer audience makes the AI nature obvious and skip the disclosure. The Commission says that exception is to be read restrictively and judged against an objective average person, not against your user base.

europeancom2026faq · stibbe2026transpare

Under a grandfathering rule introduced by the Digital Omnibus, generative AI systems placed on the market or put into service before 2 August 2026 must comply with the marking requirements only as of 2 December 2026. The concession covers marking and detection, not the disclosure duties.

Why it mattersThe only real relief available this year, and it is narrower than it sounds: it buys four months on watermarking and nothing at all on telling users they are talking to an AI.

lathamandwa2026ai · europeancom2026faq · stibbe2026transpare

Article 99(4) sets administrative fines for non-compliance with Article 50 at up to EUR 15 000 000 or, for an undertaking, up to 3 % of total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year. Article 99(6) provides that for SMEs, including start-ups, the fine is capped at the lower of the percentage or the amount.

Why it mattersThe SME inversion in paragraph 6 is almost never quoted and it materially changes the exposure calculation for a small Berlin shop: the cap is the lower of the two figures, not the higher.

euartificia2026article · stibbe2026transpare

The Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content was published on 10 June 2026 and is voluntary. It is undergoing an adequacy assessment by the Commission and the AI Board. The Commission states that following a positive assessment, signatories can rely on its measures to demonstrate compliance with the labelling and detection rules for AI-generated content, deep fakes and certain text publications. It covers Article 50(2), (4) and (5).

Why it mattersSigning today is a bet on the assessment landing positively, not a shield that exists now. The distinction decides whether the Code can be cited in a compliance file this quarter or only later.

europeancom2026code · stibbe2026transpare · europeancom2026press

The Digital Omnibus deferred EU AI Act obligations for stand-alone high-risk AI systems to 2 December 2027.

Why it mattersThe headline number in every EU compliance conversation for the next eighteen months.

lathamandwa2026ai

Obligations for high-risk AI in regulated products and safety components were deferred to 2 August 2028.

Why it mattersRelevant to anyone embedding agents in regulated products — including building-sector software.

lathamandwa2026ai

AI Act transparency obligations still apply from 2 August 2026 and were not deferred — covering interactive systems, emotion recognition, and biometric categorisation.

Why it mattersThis is the deadline that actually binds this year, and the one most teams have stopped tracking because they heard 'deferred'.

lathamandwa2026ai