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ARTICLE · 07 MAY 2026

EU Agrees To Delay Key AI Act Compliance Deadlines

Travers Smith LLP
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The European Union has reached a political agreement to significantly extend compliance deadlines for high-risk AI systems under the AI Act, with businesses now having until December 2027 or August 2028 depending on their category. The revised framework introduces separate timelines for different types of high-risk AI applications, narrows certain definitions, and provides regulatory relief for small and medium-sized companies while adding new prohibitions on non-consensual intimate content generation.

United KingdomTechnology
Louisa Chambers
Louisa Chambers
James Longster
James Longster
Helen Reddish
Helen Reddish
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Businesses facing the onset of high-risk AI system obligations in August 2026 will now have significantly more time to prepare. On 7 May 2026, EU lawmakers reached political agreement on revisions to the AI Act, bringing some much-needed certainty after a fraught end to April, when negotiations on the Digital Omnibus on AI almost broke down. This briefing explains the revised deal, which is still subject to formal adoption, and its implications for compliance deadlines and other important aspects of the AI Act.

1. What are the revised compliance deadlines?

The timeline for high-risk systems is no longer looming quite so soon. Separate, fixed deadlines will apply to each of the two main high-risk categories, allowing time for regulatory guidance and technical standards first to be finalised:

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