Artificial Intelligence
Commission opens AI Act transparency consultation before August duties
The European Commission is seeking feedback by 3 June 2026 on draft AI Act transparency guidelines that explain user-notice and content-labelling obligations due from 2 August 2026.
2026-05-13 · 1 min
The European Commissionhttps://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-opens-consultation-draft-guidelines-ai-transparency-obligations has opened a targeted consultation on draft guidelines for AI Act transparency obligations, with feedback due by 3 June 2026.
From 2 August 2026, people in the European Union will have to be informed when they are interacting with artificial intelligence systems or when they are exposed to certain AI-generated or manipulated content. The draft guidelines are intended to clarify how those obligations apply before the Commission adopts the final text.
The notice says providers will have to inform people when they are interacting with an AI system. Providers will also have to add machine-readable marks so AI-generated or manipulated content can be detected. Deployers have a separate disclosure lane: they must inform people when they are exposed to deep fakes, AI-generated publications on matters of public interest, emotion recognition systems, or biometric categorisation systems.
The Commission says the draft reflects input from previous consultations and is meant to clarify the scope of the obligations for providers and deployers. It also points to a voluntary Code of Practice on marking and labelling AI-generated content, drafted by independent experts, with the final code expected in June 2026.
The consultation is open to providers and developers of AI systems, businesses, public authorities, academics, research institutions and citizens. The source-backed timing is tight: the consultation closes on 3 June, the code is expected in June, and the transparency obligations apply from 2 August 2026.
The source does not announce an enforcement decision, name specific firms or impose a new sanction. It is still a customer-relevant AI Act update because it is the Commission consultation that sits directly before the transparency duties start applying.
The practical reading is therefore about governance calendars, not speculation. Firms building or deploying affected AI systems can use the consultation window to compare draft guideline language against existing user-notice, generated-content labelling, biometric categorisation and emotion-recognition disclosure processes. Any stronger operational conclusion would go beyond the source, so the article stays with the official consultation, the listed transparency categories, the 3 June feedback date, the June code timetable and the 2 August application date.
The official source leaves open the exact form of the final guidelines until after feedback closes. The current record supports the consultation window, the transparency categories, the Code of Practice timetable and the 2 August 2026 application date.