What the EU's New AI Labelling Rules Actually Require
Questions this post answers
When does the EU AI Act's AI labelling requirement (Article 50) take effect?
Article 50 of the EU AI Act becomes a legal requirement on August 2, 2026. It applies to any company serving EU citizens regardless of where the company is headquartered, covering deepfakes, chatbots and AI agents, fully AI-written text on public-interest matters with no human review, and emotion or biometric recognition tools. Teams shipping AI features into the EU can track Article 50 compliance changes on daily.dev as the deadline approaches.
Is a sparkle emoji enough to label AI-generated content under EU law?
No, a generic sparkle icon likely will not satisfy EU AI Act compliance. The European Commission published an official AI icon set and Code of Practice requiring labels to be clear, accessible, persistent, and paired with plain-language text such as "AI-generated," rather than a vague symbol. Developers building compliant AI-generation labels can follow labelling standard updates on daily.dev.
Which countries have mandatory AI content labelling laws besides the EU?
China's mandatory AI labelling law has been in effect since September 2025, South Korea's since January 2026, and India's since February 2026. California's requirement aligns to the same August 2, 2026 date as the EU AI Act's Article 50, meaning several major markets converge on similar labelling rules within about a year of each other. Anyone building products across multiple markets can follow global AI labelling law changes on daily.dev.