EU AI Act after the Digital Omnibus: What Moved

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, the Digital Omnibus on AI, entered into force on 27 July 2026. It changed the application dates for Chapter III, Sections 1–3 of the AI Act: 2 December 2027 for systems classified as high-risk under Article 6(2) and Annex III, and 2 August 2028 for systems under Article 6(1) and Annex I. Article 6(5) is expressly excepted from this postponement.¹ The AI Act's general application date, 2 August 2026, did not move.

This is a postponement of specified provisions, not a suspension of the whole regulation. The Omnibus also made substantive amendments elsewhere, so an earlier AI Act text or an AI Act Explorer page that has not integrated the amendments is insufficient on its own.²

Which dates apply?

The legal anchor for the two high-risk dates is the amended Article 113(3)(c), introduced by Article 1(40)(b) of the Omnibus. The Article 50(2) transition is the new Article 111(4), inserted by Article 1(39)(b). The new Article 5 prohibitions have their own start date under the amended Article 113(3)(a).¹

The Article 6(5) exception is easy to misread

Article 6(5) instructs the Commission to issue practical guidelines on high-risk classification. It does not let a deployer declare a system outside the high-risk category. The limited derogation for an Annex III system that does not pose a significant risk is in Article 6(3). Under Article 6(4), a provider invoking that derogation must document the assessment before placing the system on the market or putting it into service; the paragraph also refers to registration and disclosure of that documentation on request.³ The application of the relevant Chapter III provisions for Annex III systems is postponed to December 2027. Operators can prepare a classification record now, but should not describe Article 6(3) or (4) as a newly enforceable duty solely because Article 6(5) was excepted.

Transparency depends on the role and the use

Article 50 has different addressees. Under paragraph 1, providers must design AI systems intended for direct interaction with natural persons so that users are informed of the interaction, unless it is obvious in context. Under paragraph 2, providers of generative systems must ensure machine-readable marking of generated or manipulated audio, image, video or text, subject to the provision's exceptions and technical-feasibility qualification. Under paragraph 4, deployers must disclose certain deepfakes and AI-generated public-interest text, subject to its specific exceptions. A résumé screener that never interacts directly with an applicant does not trigger paragraph 1 merely because it is used in recruitment; other law and other AI Act provisions may still apply.⁴

The 2 December 2026 date is a transition for the paragraph 2 marking duty of pre-existing systems. It is not a general Article 50 deadline. A company that merely uses a third-party model should identify who provides the system, who deploys it, and what content it publishes before allocating duties. Self-hosting alone does not resolve that role question; see the self-hosting guide.

Enforcement and practical preparation

The AI Office and national market-surveillance authorities have powers under the AI Act, and Germany's KI-MIG designates the Bundesnetzagentur as the default market-surveillance authority with sector-specific exceptions.⁵⁶ This article does not assert a coordinated September 2026 inspection wave or a number of information requests: no primary authority record was found to substantiate the previously stated docket, agency list or count. The existence of enforcement powers does not establish that a particular company or use case has already been inspected.

For an operator, the useful sequence is to inventory AI uses and roles, check currently applicable Article 4, 5 and 50 duties, apply the GDPR where personal data is processed, and schedule the affected high-risk work against the relevant 2027 or 2028 date. Conformity assessment and registration are located elsewhere in Chapter III, not in its Sections 1–3; their interaction with the postponed high-risk rules needs a system-specific reading of the amended Act. Do not treat the postponed high-risk requirements as already enforceable solely because the authorities exist.

Legal status checked on 29 September 2026. This is general information, not individual legal advice.