Monday, 17 August 2026Europe · Analysis
Independent · Brussels & Berlin
Person
Green MEP and AI Act negotiator, European Parliament
From Sunday, companies must watermark and label synthetic content that looks authentic, while existing systems have four months to comply. Industry warns of label fatigue.
The AI Act's enforcement regime takes effect on 2 August, giving the Commission authority to demand model access and impose fines up to 3% of turnover, weeks after an autonomous agent breached Hugging Face.
Brussels faces mounting evidence that its digital enforcement is compromised by political dependence on Washington, while the Grok deepfake scandal exposes fragmented oversight across multiple rulebooks.
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