EU publishes its AI content labelling playbook ahead of the AI Act’s August deadline
Ai Content Labelling
The EU has released a voluntary AI content labelling Code of Practice to help businesses prepare for mandatory transparency rules under the AI Act, effective August 2, 2026. While the Code itself is optional, the obligations it outlines are mandatory for providers and deployers of generative AI, covering deepfakes, manipulated text, and AI chatbot disclosures.
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The Code itself is optional. The obligations it points to are not. They sit under Article 50 of the EU AI Act, and from August 2, 2026, they apply whether or not a company signs the Commission’s guidance. Signing simply gives a business a recognised way to show it complies.
What the AI content labelling rules actually require
From August, two things must be clearly flagged. Deepfakes and AI-generated or AI-manipulated text published on matters of public interest have to carry a label. Anyone chatting with an interactive AI system, such as a customer-service bot, also has to be told they are dealing with a machine.
The Commission frames it as a way to help users spot AI-made or AI-altered material and narrow the space for deception. “Europeans have a right to know whether what they see, hear or read has been made or altered by AI, especially when such content can shape public debate,” said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.
She cast the Code as a practical route to labelling that AI providers and deployers can follow before the rules bite in August. The Code splits the work between the two sides of the AI supply chain. The companies that build generative models are asked to mark their output in a machine-readable format, so it can be detected further down the line.
The companies that deploy those models, the ones putting AI to work in real products, handle the visible labelling, which, for public-interest AI text, applies when the content has gone out without human review or editorial control. To keep it workable, the Code leans on open technical standards and a common EU icon, meant to give users a consistent visual cue and spare businesses from inventing their own.
None of this is the final word. The Code is now open for signatures, and the Commission is urging all providers and deployers to sign. It still needs the Commission and the AI Board to judge it adequately, and separate Commission guidelines are due to clarify the law and cover what the Code leaves out. Drawn up by six independent experts with input from more than 180 stakeholders, it is the first instrument to tackle AI content labelling under the Act.
The timing leaves little slack. Companies serving European users have under two months to work out what they need to label and how, and to decide whether to sign. Plenty of the harder detail still rests on guidelines the Commission has yet to publish.
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Source: Original Article
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the EU AI content labelling Code of Practice actually require businesses to do?
It provides voluntary practical steps to label deepfakes, AI-generated or manipulated public-interest text, and disclose AI interactions like chatbots before mandatory Article 50 rules apply August 2, 2026.
Is signing the Code of Practice mandatory for compliance with the AI Act?
No, the Code is voluntary, but the transparency obligations under Article 50 become legally binding on August 2, 2026 regardless of whether a company signs it.
Which specific types of AI content must be labelled under the new EU rules?
Deepfakes, AI-generated or manipulated text on matters of public interest, and any interactive AI system such as customer-service bots must be clearly flagged.