Article 50 covers four categories: systems that interact with people, systems generating synthetic content, emotion recognition and biometric categorisation, and systems producing deepfakes. It applies regardless of whether the underlying system is classified as high-risk, which is the part most marketing teams missed.
The duty that lands on an advertiser is the deployer duty: disclose that content has been artificially generated or manipulated, clearly and distinguishably, at the latest at first exposure. A disclosure at the end of a thirty-second spot does not satisfy it and neither does a policy page.
It follows the output. A UK or US brand serving a campaign to EU audiences is inside it, which for most paid social is the default, and nobody decided it. Penalties run to fifteen million euro or three per cent of worldwide annual turnover.
Does Article 50 apply to companies outside the EU?
It follows the output. Where a system’s output is used in the Union, the obligations attach regardless of where the brand, agency or studio is established.
What does the December 2026 grace period cover?
Only the machine-readable marking obligation in Article 50(2), and only for systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026. It is a provider concession about watermarking infrastructure. The deployer disclosure duty stands.
Is there an artistic exemption?
There is a reduced obligation for evidently artistic, creative, satirical or fictional work. It does not cover creator-format advertising, where the persuasive effect depends on the content not reading as fiction.