Commission Guidelines on Prohibited AI Practices
The Commission's official reading of the AI Act's Article 5 bans: manipulative techniques, social scoring, emotion recognition at work and untargeted facial scraping. The reference point for scoping prohibited-use reviews.
Key dates
- Feb 2, 2025AI Act prohibitions became applicable
- Feb 4, 2025Commission guidelines published
Risk areas addressed
Who it applies to
Any provider or deployer of AI systems in the EU, clarifying the Article 5 prohibitions.
Penalties & enforcement
Breach of the underlying prohibitions carries fines up to €35M or 7% of global turnover.
Enforced by: European Commission & national market-surveillance authorities
EU Prohibited Practices Guidelines is enforced by European Commission & national market-surveillance authorities. Its obligations are already live, so a gap is a present exposure rather than a future one. In practice that means knowing which of your AI systems fall in scope across every sector you operate in, holding assessments that speak to fundamental rights, bias & discrimination and privacy, and being able to produce that evidence on request, including for systems built outside the jurisdiction.