EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) is the EU’s horizontal AI regulation, in force since August 2024 with phased obligations now running to 2028. Prohibitions and AI literacy duties applied February 2025, GPAI rules applied August 2025.

The Digital Omnibus on AI passed its final Parliament and Council votes in June 2026 and entered into force on 27 July 2026, deferring high-risk obligations for stand-alone Annex III systems to 2 December 2027 and for embedded Annex I systems to 2 August 2028.

Article 50 watermarking still applies from 2 August 2026 for new systems, with a transitional deadline of 2 December 2026 for systems already on the market.

The Omnibus also added a new Article 5 prohibition on non-consensual intimate imagery and CSAM-generation tools.