EU AI Act guide
One law. Four tiers. Find yours.
Regulation 2024/1689 is the world's first comprehensive AI law. It sorts every AI system into one of four tiers by the risk it poses — and attaches different rules to each. Here's the whole taxonomy, in plain English.
Prohibited
Article 5
Eight AI practices are simply illegal in the EU. No risk-management plan rescues them.
Read more →Typical examples
- Social scoring
- Workplace emotion recognition
- Untargeted face scraping
- Manipulative dark-pattern AI
When it bites
Enforceable since 2 February 2025
Maximum penalty
€35M or 7% of global turnover
High-risk
Annex III
AI used in eight sensitive contexts. Conformity assessment, human oversight, logging, monitoring.
Read more →Typical examples
- Recruitment & CV screening
- Credit scoring
- Medical devices
- Biometric identification
When it bites
From 2 August 2026 (Omnibus may delay to Dec 2027)
Maximum penalty
€15M or 3% of global turnover
Limited risk
Article 50
AI that interacts with people or generates content must disclose itself. Where most SMEs land.
Read more →Typical examples
- Chatbots
- AI-generated content
- Deepfakes
- Biometric inference
When it bites
From 2 August 2026 — not moving
Maximum penalty
€15M or 3% of global turnover
Minimal risk
Article 4 only
The vast majority of AI. No AI-Act-specific obligations beyond staff literacy. GDPR still applies.
Read more →Typical examples
- Spam filters
- AI search ranking
- AI photo cleanup
- Analytics
When it bites
AI literacy applies since 2 February 2025
Maximum penalty
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Explainer hub
Read it once. Then let Klarvo hold the implementation.
Article 50 (transparency)
The August 2026 deadline that catches almost every SME.
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High-risk AI (Annex III)
Recruitment, credit, medical, biometric ID — the eight categories.
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Prohibited practices (Article 5)
Eight banned uses — enforceable since February 2025.
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Timeline & deadlines
Every enforcement date from August 2024 to August 2027.
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For SMEs
What's actually different under 250 staff — and what isn't.
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Tool2-minute scope check
Personal summary of how the Act applies to you. Free.
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The deadline doesn't move.
Article 50 transparency obligations apply on 2 August 2026. Klarvo's free tier classifies your first system and gives you the obligation list in minutes.
Free tier · Full KlarvoEngine classification · No credit card