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Regulation Tracker / EU AI Act / Chapter IV

Article 50
Transparency obligations for providers and deployers of certain AI systems

Chapter IV — Transparency obligations for providers and deployers of certain AI systems. 7 distinct duties, powers or definitions are coded from this article, applying from 2026-08-02. 4 reach legal practice directly.

Amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI), in force 2026-07-27 — about 131 words changed. The text below is the consolidated version of 27 July 2026; the 2024 text and the amending regulation are on EUR-Lex.

official text: EUR-Lex (consolidated 27 Jul 2026) · text © European Union (Decision 2011/833/EU) · coding CC BY 4.0 · data: obligations.json · Hugging Face · GitHub

The text

1. Providers shall ensure that AI systems intended to interact directly with natural persons are designed and developed in such a way that the natural persons concerned are informed that they are interacting with an AI system, unless this is obvious from the point of view of a natural person who is reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect, taking into account the circumstances and the context of use. This obligation shall not apply to AI systems authorised by law to detect, prevent, investigate or prosecute criminal offences, subject to appropriate safeguards for the rights and freedoms of third parties, unless those systems are available for the public to report a criminal offence.

2. Providers of AI systems, including general-purpose AI systems, generating synthetic audio, image, video or text content, shall ensure that the outputs of the AI system are marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated. Providers shall ensure their technical solutions are effective, interoperable, robust and reliable as far as this is technically feasible, taking into account the specificities and limitations of various types of content, the costs of implementation and the generally acknowledged state of the art, as may be reflected in relevant technical standards. This obligation shall not apply to the extent the AI systems perform an assistive function for standard editing or do not substantially alter the input data provided by the deployer or the semantics thereof, or where authorised by law to detect, prevent, investigate or prosecute criminal offences.

3. Deployers of an emotion recognition system or a biometric categorisation system shall inform the natural persons exposed thereto of the operation of the system, and shall process the personal data in accordance with Regulations (EU) 2016/679 and (EU) 2018/1725 and Directive (EU) 2016/680, as applicable. This obligation shall not apply to AI systems used for biometric categorisation and emotion recognition, which are permitted by law to detect, prevent or investigate criminal offences, subject to appropriate safeguards for the rights and freedoms of third parties, and in accordance with Union law.

4. Deployers of an AI system that generates or manipulates image, audio or video content constituting a deep fake, shall disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated. This obligation shall not apply where the use is authorised by law to detect, prevent, investigate or prosecute criminal offence. Where the content forms part of an evidently artistic, creative, satirical, fictional or analogous work or programme, the transparency obligations set out in this paragraph are limited to disclosure of the existence of such generated or manipulated content in an appropriate manner that does not hamper the display or enjoyment of the work.

5. The information referred to in paragraphs 1 to 4 shall be provided to the natural persons concerned in a clear and distinguishable manner at the latest at the time of the first interaction or exposure. The information shall conform to the applicable accessibility requirements.

6. Paragraphs 1 to 4 shall not affect the requirements and obligations set out in Chapter III, and shall be without prejudice to other transparency obligations laid down in Union or national law for deployers of AI systems.

7. The Commission shall encourage and facilitate the drawing up of codes of practice at Union level to facilitate the effective implementation of the obligations regarding the detection, marking and labelling of artificially generated or manipulated content. The Commission, taking utmost account of the opinion of the Board, shall assess whether adherence to those codes of practice is adequate to ensure compliance with the obligations laid down in paragraphs 2 and 4 of this Article, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 56(6). If it deems the code of practice to be inadequate, the Commission may adopt an implementing act specifying common rules for the implementation of those obligations in accordance with the examination procedure laid down in Article 98(2).

What it requires, coded

SafeLegalAI's reading of each duty in this article: who, what, from when, under which fine tier, and whether it reaches a firm, chambers, court or legal-AI vendor. Descriptive, not advice; the quoted words are the Regulation's.

  1. Art. 50(1)Information to personsTransparency obligationslegal practice

    Providers must design and develop AI systems intended to interact directly with natural persons so those persons are informed they are interacting with AI, unless obvious or covered by the specified law-enforcement exception.

    "Providers shall ensure that AI systems intended to interact directly with natural persons are designed and developed in such a way that the natural persons concerned are informed that they are interacting with an AI system"
    Who
    Provider
    From
    (Art. 113 second subparagraph)
    Fine tier
    Art. 99(4)
    Legal practice
    Reaches legal practice directly — High for legal-AI chatbots, intake assistants, and advice tools that interact directly with clients, witnesses, employees, or the public.

  2. Art. 50(2)TransparencyTransparency obligationslegal practice

    Providers of AI systems, including GPAI systems, that generate synthetic audio, image, video or text content must mark outputs in machine-readable and detectable form, subject to the stated assistive-function and law-enforcement exceptions.

    "Providers of AI systems, including general-purpose AI systems, generating synthetic audio, image, video or text content, shall ensure that the outputs of the AI system are marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated"
    Who
    Provider, GPAI model provider
    From
    (Art. 113 second subparagraph)Under Art. 111(4), providers of AI systems, including general-purpose AI systems, generating synthetic audio, image, video or text content that were placed on the market before 2026-08-02 must comply with Art. 50(2) by 2026-12-02.
    Fine tier
    Art. 99(4)
    Legal practice
    Reaches legal practice directly — High for vendors whose legal-AI systems generate draft text or other synthetic content for external use.
    See
    Art. 111(4)

  3. Art. 50(3)Information to personsTransparency obligations

    Deployers of emotion-recognition or biometric-categorisation systems must inform exposed natural persons of the system operation and process personal data under applicable EU data-protection law, except for the stated law-enforcement use.

    "Deployers of an emotion recognition system or a biometric categorisation system shall inform the natural persons exposed thereto of the operation of the system"
    Who
    Deployer
    From
    (Art. 113 second subparagraph)
    Fine tier
    Art. 99(4)
    Legal practice
    Reaches legal-AI vendors or public bodies — Potentially relevant to legal employers, courts, or public bodies if they deploy emotion-recognition or biometric categorisation tools.
    See
    Regulation (EU) 2016/679 · Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 · Directive (EU) 2016/680

  4. Art. 50(4)TransparencyTransparency obligationslegal practice

    Deployers of AI systems that generate or manipulate image, audio or video content constituting a deep fake must disclose that the content was artificially generated or manipulated, subject to law-enforcement and expressive-work limits.

    "Deployers of an AI system that generates or manipulates image, audio or video content constituting a deep fake, shall disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated"
    Who
    Deployer
    From
    (Art. 113 second subparagraph)
    Fine tier
    Art. 99(4)
    Legal practice
    Reaches legal practice directly — High for law firms, legal departments, courts, or legal-AI vendors publishing AI-generated public-facing audiovisual content.

  5. Art. 50(5)Information to personsTransparency obligationslegal practice

    Information required by Article 50(1) to (4) must be given clearly and distinguishably by the first interaction or exposure and must meet applicable accessibility requirements.

    "The information referred to in paragraphs 1 to 4 shall be provided to the natural persons concerned in a clear and distinguishable manner at the latest at the time of the first interaction or exposure"
    Who
    Provider, Deployer
    From
    (Art. 113 second subparagraph)
    Fine tier
    Art. 99(4)
    Legal practice
    Reaches legal practice directly — High because legal-AI notices to clients, consumers, employees, or the public must be timely, clear, and accessible.
    See
    Art. 50(1) · Art. 50(2) · Art. 50(3) · Art. 50(4)

  6. Art. 50(6)Scope or definitionTransparency obligations

    Article 50 transparency obligations do not affect Chapter III high-risk requirements and do not displace other Union or national transparency obligations for AI deployers.

    "Paragraphs 1 to 4 shall not affect the requirements and obligations set out in Chapter III, and shall be without prejudice to other transparency obligations laid down in Union or national law for deployers of AI systems"
    Who
    Provider, Deployer
    From
    (Art. 113 second subparagraph)
    Legal practice
    Reaches legal-AI vendors or public bodies — Clarifies that legal AI may have overlapping high-risk and sectoral transparency duties.
    See
    Chapter III

  7. Art. 50(7)Delegated or implementing actTransparency obligations

    The Commission must encourage and facilitate Union-level codes of practice for detecting, marking and labelling artificially generated or manipulated content and may adopt common implementation rules if codes are inadequate.

    "The Commission shall encourage and facilitate the drawing up of codes of practice at Union level to facilitate the effective implementation of the obligations regarding the detection, marking and labelling of artificially generated or manipulated content"
    Who
    Commission
    From
    (Art. 113 second subparagraph)
    Legal practice
    Institutional — Institutional support for transparency rules that legal-AI providers and deployers may follow.
    See
    Art. 56(6) · Art. 98(2)

Cite

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50 (Transparency obligations for providers and deployers of certain AI systems), as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, consolidated text of 27 July 2026, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/2026-07-27/eng#art_50 — text © European Union; only the Official Journal is authentic. Coding: SafeLegalAI (published by Cognesio LLP), "EU AI Act, structured", safelegalai.com/regulation/eu-ai-act/article-50, accessed 2026-09-08, CC BY 4.0.