News · EU AI Act · 31 July 2026

The Digital Omnibus deferral: what moved, what did not, and what applies now

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 entered into force on 27 July 2026 and rewrote Article 113 of the EU AI Act six days before the general application date. Most commentary read it as a delay. Half of it was the opposite.

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Every claim and its source

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, the Digital Omnibus on AI, of 8 July 2026, published as OJ L, 2026/1744 on 24 July 2026 and entering into force on 27 July 2026 under its Article 4: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, Official Journal text. The general date of application of 2 August 2026 standing where the Act put it, and the Article 50 transparency duties beginning to apply on that date: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Articles 50 and 113. The Article 4 AI literacy duty and the Article 5 prohibited practices applying since 2 February 2025, including the inference of emotions in the workplace except for medical or safety reasons: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Articles 4, 5 and 113. The rewrite of the Article 4 AI literacy duty, from ensuring a sufficient level of AI literacy to taking measures to support its development, and the express statement that the obligation does not require providers or deployers to guarantee any specific level of AI literacy of any individual: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, Article 1, point (5), replacing Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689. A business whose staff use an AI system under the business's own authority being a deployer, the definition reaching any natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body using an AI system under its authority except where the system is used in the course of a personal non-professional activity: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 3, point (4). High-risk requirements moving to 2 December 2027 for systems under Article 6(2) and Annex III, and to 2 August 2028 for systems under Article 6(1) and Annex I: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, Article 1, point (40)(b), new Article 113, third paragraph, points (c)(i) and (c)(ii). The harmonised standards those systems will be measured against landing inside the deferral window, CEN and CENELEC having adopted measures in October 2025 to make the key standards under CEN-CLC/JTC 21 available by the fourth quarter of 2026, against standardisation request M/593 as amended by M/613: CEN and CENELEC news item of 23 October 2025. New prohibitions applying from 2 December 2026 under Article 5(1), points (ba) and (bb), and Article 5(1a) and (1b), addressing non-consensual intimate material and child sexual abuse material with safeguard duties on providers: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, Article 1, point (40)(a), new Article 113, third paragraph, point (a). The end of the Article 111(4) transitional allowance on 2 December 2026, so that systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026 must meet the Article 50(2) machine-readable marking requirement from that date: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, Article 1, point (39)(b), new Article 111(4). The eighty-one amendments Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 makes, and the four corroborations of the 27 July 2026 date inside the instrument, checked against the captured Official Journal text rather than a live page: ComplianceSME amendment delta record for Regulation (EU) 2026/1744. The coverage that read the amendment as a delay: Pinsent Masons Out-Law, Rules on high-risk AI to be delayed under EU omnibus deal; Cooley, Digital AI Omnibus Delays Key Deadlines, Introduces New Rules. Every claim above checked against the Official Journal text of Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 and of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, 2 September 2026.

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