The EU AI Act arrives in stages.
The next one lands 2 December 2026.
The Digital Omnibus moved the high-risk deadlines — and most of what is written online still shows the old dates. This page is generated from one verified dataset, checked against the legislation in the EU's Official Journal, and updated the moment a date moves. If it says a date here, it is the current law.
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What changed
The Digital Omnibus was adopted, deferring the high-risk deadlines to December 2027 and August 2028.
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Already in force
Article 50 transparency duties, deployer obligations, and enforcement powers for national regulators.
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You are here
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Upcoming
High-risk obligations for Annex III systems — including AI used in recruitment, credit scoring, education and essential services.
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Upcoming
High-risk obligations for Annex I systems — AI embedded in products already covered by EU product safety law.
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What this means for your business
Using AI tools today?
Transparency duties, deployer obligations and regulator enforcement powers are the earliest wave — and they cover ordinary businesses using ordinary AI tools, not just the companies building them. If your team uses AI that EU customers or staff encounter, this wave is yours.
AI in recruitment, credit or education?
Those are Annex III high-risk uses. The Digital Omnibus bought you time — it did not remove the obligations. Risk classification, human oversight procedures and documentation take months to build properly, not weeks.
Getting the dates wrong is its own risk
Penalties scale to the breach: up to €35 million or 7% of global annual turnover, whichever is LOWER for a small or medium business — in practice 7% of turnover for prohibited practices, and up to €15 million or 3% of global annual turnover, whichever is LOWER for a small or medium business — in practice 3% of turnover for high-risk violations. Planning against out-of-date deadlines means paying for compliance twice — or discovering an obligation after it applies.
Know which dates are yours — in one call
We build fixed-price EU AI Act compliance frameworks in plain English — risk classification, policies, human oversight procedures and the documentation regulators expect. From £497.