AI Act: labelling of legacy systems falls due
What applies
On 2 December 2026, a transition period ends that is narrower than it usually gets portrayed. It sits in Art. 111(4) AI Act, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, and applies only to providers of AI systems that generate synthetic audio, image, video, or text content — and among those, only systems already placed on the market before 2 August 2026.
What has to be retrofitted by then is exactly one duty: the machine-readable marking under Art. 50(2) AI Act. That's the technical marker inside the content itself that lets a machine detect it was artificially generated or manipulated.
The reverse is the important part: every other transparency duty has applied without any grace period since 2 August 2026. If you only use an AI tool rather than offer one, this deadline doesn't relieve you of anything — it simply doesn't apply to you.
Who it affects
Providers of generative AI systems with products already on the market. For companies that only use AI, this deadline is mainly a procurement lever: by then, your supplier needs to have delivered.
Example (fictional): The image generator inside the product
A software house built an image generator into its marketing tool in 2025 and has sold it to agencies ever since. That makes it a “provider” under the AI Act — even though the underlying model is licensed from a third party.
In autumn, the first agency asks about the machine-readable marking, because its own client is demanding it during procurement. The software house discovers its model supplier applies no watermarking and the contract says nothing about it. Four months is enough time to switch model suppliers — four weeks is not.
The risks, plainly stated
Fines
Violations of Art. 50 carry fines of up to €15 million or 3% of worldwide annual turnover (Art. 99(4)(g) AI Act). For SMEs and start-ups, the lower of the two figures applies — since the Digital Omnibus Regulation, also for small mid-cap companies (Art. 99(6) and (6a) AI Act).
Dependence on an upstream supplier
If you don't generate the marking yourself, you can't retrofit it yourself either — the deadline runs against you, but delivery sits with the model provider.
Procurement demand
Large customers now ask about the marking during sourcing. Having it wins you time in sales; not having it means explaining yourself.
Your next steps
- 01Clarify whether you're a provider or a deployer for this system — everything else depends on that
- 02Ask your model supplier in writing for the machine-readable marking and keep the answer on file
- 03In parallel, check whether the deployer duties under Art. 50(4) already apply to you — those are already in force
In Compliverse
The compass turns exactly these steps into measures in your plan automatically — with deadlines, owners, and evidence.
Plain-language product content, not legal advice · Case studies are fictional · Fine amounts as stated in the legal act (“up to”)