Source: LoupedIn

From 2 August 2026, significantly tightened EU obligations will apply to businesses using AI, and non‑compliance may trigger fines up to EUR 35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher. The European AI Regulation (AI Act) entered into force in August 2024 and will be fully applicable from August 2026, applying a risk‑based approach that treats AI systems used for CV screening, performance and behavioural monitoring of employees as high‑risk and subject to strict mitigation and information duties. Certain AI uses are outright prohibited, including software designed to detect employee emotions (for example via facial analysis or sentiment analysis), and the rules capture both in‑house and off‑the‑shelf systems.

To implement the AI Act nationally, the German Bundestag adopted the Act on Market Surveillance and Innovation Promotion of Artificial Intelligence (KI‑MIG) on 11 June 2026, designating the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) as the central market surveillance authority empowered to monitor and enforce compliance. Substantive business duties continue to derive directly from the AI Act and include transparency and information obligations, comprehensive documentation, registration of high‑risk systems in an EU database, human oversight, serious‑incident reporting, mandatory training, fundamental‑rights impact assessments, and lifecycle risk‑management systems. Employers remain responsible as “deployers” and cannot simply delegate obligations to software providers; in Germany, works‑council co‑determination rights apply to the introduction and use of AI systems for monitoring employees, and failure to involve the works council in time can block deployment. The post urges businesses—particularly those using AI in HR—to identify and classify all AI systems now and implement the required compliance measures, and provides a contact for further questions.