Does My Website Fall Under the EU AI Act? A Checklist for Businesses

Short answer. Do you run a chatbot on your site, or show text, images or video made by AI? Then the transparency obligation (Article 50) of the EU AI Act applies to your website, and it takes effect from 2 August 2026. Unlike the European Accessibility Act, there is no micro-exception: whether you are a sole trader or a large corporation, the obligation applies the moment your AI speaks to the public or creates content for the public.

Who falls under the AI Act? Not just those who build AI

The law splits parties into providers (who build AI systems, like OpenAI or your chat vendor) and deployers (businesses that put someone else's AI to use). For the AI Act as it applies to businesses, that distinction is crucial: an online shop running an AI chatbot from Shopify, Intercom or Tidio is a deployer, and deployers carry transparency obligations too, the moment their AI is visible to visitors. So you do not need to write a single line of code on a model to fall under the rules. The question is not whether you build AI, but whether you show it.

The checklist: three situations that affect your website

Walk through these three. If even one applies to you, Article 50 affects your site.

1. Do you run a chatbot or AI assistant? Then the visitor must know, no later than first contact, that they are talking to AI. A clear notice in or above the chat window is enough; buried in your terms it is not. Exactly what that notice must say, and where, is something we cover in a separate piece on whether your chatbot has to say it is AI.

2. Do you show AI-generated content? Text, product descriptions, images or audio created or edited by AI must be marked in a machine-readable way, and for deepfakes and AI text aimed at the public, visibly too. For generative systems that were already running before 2 August 2026, there is a grace period until 2 December 2026.

3. Do you use AI in decisions about people? Do you screen job applicants with AI, or assess creditworthiness for buy-now-pay-later? Then your system may fall into the high-risk category (Annex III), with a far heavier set of requirements than transparency alone. An ordinary product recommendation or search function does not count here. If this describes you, have it reviewed legally: this is a separate and stricter track than the notification duty this article covers.

No micro-exception, and that is the big difference from the EAA

Under the European Accessibility Act, micro-enterprises (fewer than 10 staff and under 2 million euros in turnover) are exempt as service providers from the accessibility requirements themselves. For the AI Act, that escape route does not exist. The transparency obligations of Article 50 hang on what your AI does, not on how big you are. So being small is no free pass here.

Something is already in play before 2026, too: AI literacy (Article 4) has applied since 2 February 2025. Anyone working with AI has to understand enough about it. No exam, but demonstrable basic knowledge, matched to how you deploy AI. Breaching the transparency obligations carries fines of up to 15 million euros or 3% of worldwide annual turnover, enforceable by the national supervisory authority.

Do you fall under the AI Act? Here is how to find out

The first step is knowing what runs on your site. Our scan detects which chat widget sits on your shop or website; whether it is AI-driven is something you confirm yourself, and then you know straight away whether situation 1 applies to you. Scan your site free, in under a minute and without an account.

If you want to handle this in a structured way, the AI transparency check bundles the tools: a ready-made notice text for your chatbot, guidance for marking AI content and an AI register as evidence. For 29 euros per month or 290 per year (excl. VAT), available on its own or as an add-on to your Seviranta plan. That way the notification duty is ready before 2 August 2026, not after.

Sources: Article 50, EU AI Act · AI Act implementation timeline