2 August 2026: what actually falls due after the Digital Omnibus

What changed and when

The European Parliament adopted the Digital Omnibus on AI on 16 June 2026, the Council gave final approval on 29 June 2026, the act was signed on 8 July 2026 and published in the Official Journal as Regulation (EU) 2026/1744. It entered into force on 27 July 2026.

Two dates moved: obligations for stand-alone high-risk systems under Annex III from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027, and obligations for high-risk AI as a safety component of regulated products under Annex I from 2 August 2027 to 2 August 2028.

The stated reason is missing harmonised standards and the incomplete build-out of notified bodies. The conformity-assessment capacity bottleneck therefore still exists, it has only moved.

What actually applies on 2 August 2026

Article 50 transparency obligations. Deployers must inform people that they are interacting with an AI system where this is not obvious. That covers every customer-facing chatbot and every AI-assisted voice channel.

AI-generated or manipulated content must be marked as such. Deepfakes and synthetic image, audio and video content require disclosure.

Providers of generative systems must mark their outputs in machine-readable form (Art. 50(2)). For systems already placed on the market before 2 August 2026, that marking duty applies from 2 December 2026.

Emotion recognition and biometric categorisation trigger an information duty towards the affected persons, independently of the risk class.

Still in force: the Art. 5 prohibitions and the Art. 4 AI literacy duty since 2 February 2025, and the GPAI obligations since 2 August 2025.

What the postponement does not change

The work is identical, only the due date moved. A compliance programme for high-risk systems typically runs 9 to 18 months. From July 2026 to December 2027 there are about 17.

Inventory and classification remain the precondition for every procurement decision in between. Anyone buying AI-assisted candidate screening or credit scoring today has to determine the risk class now, because the contract runs into the new deadline.

Contracts signed in 2026 with a term into 2028 need the clauses today that will have to be evidenced in 2027: Annex IV technical documentation, CE conformity, EU database registration, reporting channels for serious incidents.

Penalty levels are unchanged: up to EUR 35 million or 7 percent of global annual turnover for prohibited practices, up to EUR 15 million or 3 percent for breaches of provider and deployer obligations.

Relief for smaller organisations

The omnibus widens the simplified compliance regime: organisations with up to 750 employees and up to EUR 150 million annual turnover now qualify.

That regime includes simplified documentation templates, reduced fines, access to regulatory sandboxes and adapted guidance.

For the German Mittelstand this is the single most relevant change in the package, because the old SME threshold of 250 employees excluded many family-owned companies.

What to do now

1. Inventory the AI systems in use and in procurement, including capabilities embedded in line-of-business applications. No inventory, no classification.

2. Classify each system with documented reasoning: prohibited, Annex III high-risk, Annex I high-risk, Art. 50 transparency, minimal.

3. For anything in Art. 50 scope: roll out marking and disclosure notices by 2 August 2026, retrofit systems already on the market by 2 December 2026.

4. Establish your role: provider or deployer. Substantially modifying a purchased system makes you the provider and transfers those obligations to you.

5. Adjust procurement: conformity evidence, data provenance, logging capability and human oversight belong in every criteria set for AI purchases from now on.

6. Correct your internal deadline tracker. Planning against 2 August 2026 as a high-risk cut-off burns budget on a schedule that no longer exists.

Sources

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI), Official Journal of the EU, in force 27 July 2026. Council of the EU press releases of 7 May 2026 (political agreement) and 29 June 2026 (final approval). The underlying act remains Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (EU AI Act) as amended. The Art. 50 dates follow from the AI Act itself; only Art. 50(2) receives a transitional rule for systems already on the market.