What changed on 2 August 2026, what it means for your campaign visuals, and the clauses to add to your agency brief.
The EU adopted the world's first broad law on artificial intelligence in 2024. Rather than arriving all at once, it switches on in stages over several years, and each stage covers a different kind of AI use. The stage that concerns anyone who markets an event arrived on 2 August 2026: the transparency rules, set out in Article 50.
What they require is simple enough to state in a sentence. If a machine made it and it looks real, the audience has to be told. That covers images, video and audio that appear authentic, chatbots that could be mistaken for a person, and published text on matters of public interest. The disclosure has to be clear and reach people the first time they see or interact with the content.
Many marketers believe this was postponed because it was widely reported in 2025 and 2026 that parts of the AI Act had been pushed back. That is true, but it applied to a different chapter - the rules on high-risk systems used in areas like recruitment, credit scoring and critical infrastructure, which now start in December 2027 and August 2028. The transparency rules were left where they were. They are in force; the European Commission's AI Office and national authorities began enforcing them on the day, and the maximum penalty is €15 million or 3% of worldwide annual ...
Source: Photo: iStockPhoto 2276917541
