What is Article 50 of the EU AI Act?

What Is Article 50 — In Plain English

Article 50 is the transparency rule inside the EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689). It says: if you use AI that talks to people, generates content, reads emotions, or creates deepfakes, you must tell people. Not in your privacy policy. Not buried in your terms of service. At the moment of interaction.

It applies from 2 August 2026 for new AI systems. Existing systems have until 2 December 2026 for the machine-readable marking part.

Article 50 is NOT the same as high-risk AI regulation. It's a separate, standalone set of transparency rules that apply to virtually every AI feature that touches end users — regardless of risk classification.

Why Article 50 Matters

Unlike other parts of the EU AI Act (which target high-risk applications like medical devices, critical infrastructure, or recruitment AI), Article 50 is intentionally broad. It applies to:

• A startup's customer support chatbot
• An e-commerce platform's recommendation engine
• A content creator's AI image generator
• A media company's automated news summaries
• A SaaS product's in-app AI assistant

The EU's logic is simple: people have a right to know when they're interacting with AI or consuming AI-generated content. It's a consumer transparency rule, not an AI safety rule.

The Four Rules Inside Article 50

Rule 1: Tell People It's AI (Article 50(1))

If your AI system talks to people — through chat, voice, or any direct interaction — the user must be informed that they're interacting with AI.

Example: A customer support chatbot must say "I'm an AI assistant" at the start of the conversation. A voice agent must announce "This call is handled by an AI system."

Exception: If it's "obvious" to a reasonable person. But this is narrow — don't rely on it.

Rule 2: Mark AI-Generated Content (Article 50(2))

If your AI creates synthetic text, images, audio, or video, those outputs must be marked as AI-generated in a machine-readable format.

Example: An AI-generated product photo must have C2PA metadata saying "generated by AI." AI-written blog posts must include a visible disclosure.

Rule 3: Disclose Emotion Recognition (Article 50(3))

If you use AI to detect emotions or categorize people by biometric data, you must inform them.

Example: An interview platform that analyzes candidate sentiment must disclose this before the interview starts.

Rule 4: Label Deepfakes (Article 50(4))

If you create or share deepfake images, audio, or video, you must label it as artificially generated. Same for AI-generated text published on matters of public interest.

Example: A synthetic video of a CEO making a statement must have a visible "AI-generated" label.

Who Has to Comply?

Both providers (who build AI systems) and deployers (who put them in front of users) have obligations. If you're a SaaS company, you're likely both: you built the AI feature AND you deploy it to your users.

What Happens If You Don't?

Penalties under Article 99(4)(g): €15 million or 3% of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. This is the same penalty tier as other serious AI Act violations.

How to Comply Right Now

1. Identify your AI features (chatbots, generators, recommenders)

2. Generate compliant disclosure text with our [free generator](/generate)

3. Publish the HTML widget to your website in 30 seconds

4. Download the PDF report for your compliance records

CTA: Get Your Article 50 Disclosure

Our [Article 50 generator](/generate) produces compliant text for all four transparency rules — chatbots, content generators, recommendation engines, and more — in under 30 seconds.

[Generate My Article 50 Disclosure →](/generate)

*This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified legal professional for your specific compliance needs.*