European Union: AI content labelling rules

The rules on labelling AI-generated content in the EU, what each asks of a file, and what one Kennmarq.com call adds.

In short

Images: Covered
Video: Covered
Audio: Partly; deep fakes December 2026
Text: Planned, March 2027
3D: Not required
Rules: 1 general, 1 for some sectors only.
In the API: markets=eu

Updated 4 November 2026; sources checked 4 November 2026. Sources are government sites. This page explains what Kennmarq.com does; it isn't legal advice.

General rules

EU AI Act, Article 50: In force since 2 August 2026. Machine-readable, detectable marks on AI output; a clear notice on deepfakes and AI public-interest text.

Rules for specific sectors

Platforms

DSA Art. 35(1)(k) (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065): In force since 25 August 2023. Prominent markings on realistic generated or manipulated images, audio and video shown on their interfaces.

In the API

Send markets=eu on each call to POST /v1/mark: a call that lacks what the EU's rules need is refused before anything is counted, and each mark gets a receipt of what it carries for each law.

What a mark for the EU carries, by kind of file
File	Made with AI	A deep fake (`deepfake=true`)
Picture	Watermark and Content Credentials	Watermark, Content Credentials and the visible label
Clip	Watermark and Content Credentials	Watermark, Content Credentials and the visible label
Song	Watermark and Content Credentials	Refused for now: the EU's deep fakes in sound need a spoken notice (Art. 50(4)), which we don't add yet.

Mark a picture for the EU

curl https://api.kennmarq.com/v1/mark \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KENNMARQ_API_KEY" \
  -F file=@image.png \
  -F source=created \
  -F markets=eu \
  -o image.marked.png

An AI coding agent gets the same answer from the MCP tool get_requirements (MCP server).

Member states

The AI Act applies in all 27; some have rules of their own on top of it, on their own pages. Each member state is also a market of its own (markets=de), with the EU's rules and its own.

The EU on the map, and every country's rules side by side.