EU AI Act Article 26(4) — Deployer duty to ensure input data is relevant and sufficiently representative
Where the deployer controls the input data, it must ensure that data is relevant and sufficiently representative for the system's intended purpose
Where this comes from
Provision: Article 26(4) — Deployer duty to ensure input data is relevant and sufficiently representative
Instrument: EU Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689)
Citation: Article 26(4), 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(4) applies only 'to the extent the deployer exercises control over the input data'. Where the provider or a third party supplies the inputs and the deployer has no control over them, the paragraph imposes nothing on the deployer. (AI Act Art. 26(4))
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(4): the duty arises only 'to the extent the deployer exercises control over the input data' — a deployer that supplies no input data owes nothing under this paragraph
What engineering work it implies
- Training Data Governance Record (Datasheet + Bias Assessment)Covers part of it
A per-dataset data card covering the Article 10(2) governance practices, plus a bias-assessment checklist and a pipeline gate that blocks a training run when the card...
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Each input field is documented with its source and whether the deployer controls it
- Relevance of each controlled input to the system's stated intended purpose is recorded, field by field
- The population the input data is meant to represent is named, together with the known divergence from it
- Input validation rejects or flags records that fall outside the documented distribution rather than scoring them silently
- Where the deployer does NOT control an input, that is recorded and raised with the provider rather than left implicit
Evidence an auditor expects
- Process recordDocument review
Input-data control record (Art. 26(4))
Description of which input data the deployer controls, and the checks applied to confirm it is relevant and sufficiently representative in view of the intended purpose stated in the instructions for use. Where the deployer controls no input data, a record saying so and identifying who does
- Technical controlTechnical auditRecommended
Input validation controls in the deployment pipeline
Configuration or code evidence of schema, range, freshness and representativeness checks applied to input data before it reaches the system
Questions people ask
- Does EU AI Act Article 26(4) — Deployer duty to ensure input data is relevant and… 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(4) — Deployer duty to ensure input data is relevant and… is enforceable from 2 August 2026. Its current status is: in force.
- What evidence does an auditor expect?
- Input-data control record (Art. 26(4)); Input validation controls in the deployment pipeline.
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.