EU AI Act Article 5(1)(g) — Prohibition on biometric categorisation to deduce protected attributes
Biometric categorisation systems that deduce a person's race, political opinions, trade union membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation are prohibited
Where this comes from
Provision: Article 5(1)(g) — Prohibition on biometric categorisation to deduce protected attributes
Instrument: EU Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689)
Citation: Article 5(1)(g), 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
AI system in scope of the Act (Art. 2) — all of these:
- Service deploys AI systems in a professional capacity
…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. 5(1)(g): 'this prohibition does not cover any labelling or filtering of lawfully acquired biometric datasets, such as images, based on biometric data or categorizing of biometric data in the area of law enforcement'. (AI Act Art. 5(1)(g), final clause)
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. 5(1): the prohibition binds ANY actor that places the system on the market, puts it into service or uses it — provider, deployer, importer, distributor or authorised representative alike
- Art. 5(1)(g): the system categorises individual natural persons 'based on their biometric data' to deduce or infer race, political opinions, trade union membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Every biometric feature is inventoried with what it infers and from what input
- No inference path can deduce race, political opinions, trade-union membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation — checked in code, not only in policy
- Proxy inference is considered: a label that reliably predicts a protected attribute is treated as inferring it
- Lawful labelling or filtering of lawfully acquired biometric datasets, and law-enforcement biometric categorisation, are separated in the record from the prohibited use (Art. 5(1)(g) carve-out)
- A signed attestation covers first-party and vendor biometric components, re-affirmed on a defined cadence
Evidence an auditor expects
- Assessment documentDocument review
Prohibited-practice screening attestation for Art. 5(1)(g)
Signed assessment recording whether any biometric categorisation system individually categorises natural persons to deduce or infer race, political opinions, trade union membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation
- Technical controlTechnical audit
Inventory of biometric categories the system can output
Model card or label schema listing every category the system can emit, so a protected-attribute inference is visible on its face rather than discovered in testing
Questions people ask
- Does EU AI Act Article 5(1)(g) — Prohibition on biometric categorisation to deduce… apply to my service?
- It applies when Service deploys AI systems in a professional capacity. 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 5(1)(g) — Prohibition on biometric categorisation to deduce… is enforceable from 2 February 2025. Its current status is: in force.
- What evidence does an auditor expect?
- Prohibited-practice screening attestation for Art. 5(1)(g); Inventory of biometric categories the system can output.
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.