EU AI Act Article 26(11) — Deployer duty to inform natural persons that they are subject to the use of a high-risk AI system
Deployers of Annex III high-risk AI systems that make or assist decisions about people must inform those people that they are subject to the use of the system
Where this comes from
Provision: Article 26(11) — Deployer duty to inform natural persons that they are subject to the use of a high-risk AI system
Instrument: EU Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689)
Citation: Article 26(11), Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
Text version: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), OJ L, 12.7.2024
Checked against the source: 2 September 2026
Who it applies to
High-risk AI deployer in scope — all of these:
- Service deploys AI systems in a professional capacity
- AI Act role is Deployer or we provide some AI systems and deploy others
Annex III high-risk area (Art. 6(2)) — any one of these:
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Biometrics
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Critical infrastructure
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Education and vocational training
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Employment and worker management
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Essential public services
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Creditworthiness
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Insurance
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Law enforcement
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Migration, asylum and border control
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Administration of justice and democratic processes
…unless:
- AI Act scope exclusion is used exclusively for military, defence or national-security purposes or developed and used solely for scientific research and development
- Art. 2(3): the Regulation 'does not apply to AI systems where and in so far as they are placed on the market, put into service, or used with or without modification exclusively for military, defence or national security purposes'. (AI Act Art. 2(3))
- Art. 2(6): the Regulation 'does not apply to AI systems or AI models, including their output, specifically developed and put into service for the sole purpose of scientific research and development'. (AI Act Art. 2(6))
- Art. 6(3): an Annex III system is NOT high-risk where it does not pose a significant risk of harm to health, safety or fundamental rights, including by not materially influencing the outcome of decision making — which applies where the system (a) performs... (AI Act Art. 6(3))
- Art. 26(11): 'For high-risk AI systems used for law enforcement purposes Article 13 of Directive (EU) 2016/680 shall apply.' The AI Act duty is displaced by, not removed in favour of nothing — the LED information regime governs instead. (AI Act Art. 26(11), second sentence)
Scope in the source's own terms
- Art. 2(1): the AI system is placed on the market or put into service in the Union, or the provider/deployer is established in the Union, or the output produced by the system is used in the Union
- Art. 6(2): the AI system falls within an area listed in Annex III and is therefore high-risk, no documented Art. 6(3) derogation applying (and it is ALWAYS high-risk where it performs profiling of natural persons)
- Art. 26(1), read with Art. 3(4): the actor is a 'deployer' — a natural or legal person using an AI system under its authority, other than in the course of a personal non-professional activity
- Art. 26(11): the Annex III system 'make[s] decisions or assist[s] in making decisions related to natural persons' — assistance is enough, the decision need not be fully automated
What engineering work it implies
- AI Transparency Notices (Chatbot, Emotion/Biometric, Synthetic Media)Covers it fully
The three Article 50 disclosures as shippable components: an AI-interaction notice, an emotion/biometric exposure notice, and synthetic-media labelling with a...
- Right to Explanation Endpoint (Art. 86 / GDPR Art. 22)Covers part of it
Request intake plus a templated explanation of the AI system's role and the main elements of the decision, assembled from the decision record rather than written by hand.
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Every decision surface where the system makes or assists a decision about a person carries the notice
- The notice reaches the person at or before the decision takes effect, not only in a policy page
- The notice names the system's role plainly and links onward to the explanation route (Art. 86)
- The notice is in the accessibility tree and readable at the supported text sizes
- Notice copy is version-controlled and the version shown to a person is recoverable for that date
Evidence an auditor expects
- User-interface evidenceUser testing
The notice actually shown to natural persons subject to the system
Screenshots or copies of the notice telling affected natural persons that they are subject to the use of a high-risk AI system, captured at the point in the journey where the decision is made or assisted
- Process recordDocument review
Coverage record mapping every decision flow to its Art. 26(11) notice
Register of the decision or decision-assistance flows the Annex III system participates in, each mapped to the notice served. Where the system is used for law enforcement purposes, the record must show that Art. 13 of Directive (EU) 2016/680 was applied instead
Questions people ask
- Does EU AI Act Article 26(11) — Deployer duty to inform natural persons that they… apply to my service?
- It applies when Service deploys AI systems in a professional capacity; AI Act role is Deployer or we provide some AI systems and deploy others; and at least one of: Annex III high-risk areas includes Biometrics; Annex III high-risk areas includes Critical infrastructure; Annex III high-risk areas includes Education and vocational training; Annex III high-risk areas includes Employment and worker management; Annex III high-risk areas includes Essential public services; Annex III high-risk areas includes Creditworthiness; Annex III high-risk areas includes Insurance; Annex III high-risk areas includes Law enforcement; Annex III high-risk areas includes Migration, asylum and border control; Annex III high-risk areas includes Administration of justice and democratic processes. It does not apply where AI Act scope exclusion is used exclusively for military, defence or national-security purposes or developed and used solely for scientific research and development.
- When does this become enforceable?
- EU AI Act Article 26(11) — Deployer duty to inform natural persons that they… is enforceable from 2 August 2026. Its current status is: in force.
- What evidence does an auditor expect?
- The notice actually shown to natural persons subject to the system; Coverage record mapping every decision flow to its Art. 26(11) notice.
Find out whether this one lands on you
Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.