European UnionAI Act, Article 6(3) and (4) (narrow-task derogation from Annex III high-risk classification)
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 6(3) and (4)
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
An AI risk obligations rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 23 September 2026.
What it requires
- If your AI system is listed in Annex III but performs only a narrow procedural task, improves the result of a previously completed human activity, detects deviations from prior human decision-making patterns without replacing or influencing them, or performs a preparatory task to an Annex III assessment, and does not pose a significant risk of harm, you may treat it as not high-risk, unless it profiles natural persons, in which case it is always high-risk.
- Document your assessment that the system is not high-risk before placing it on the market or putting it into service.
- You are subject to the Article 49(2) EU database registration obligation.
- Provide the documentation of your assessment to national competent authorities on request.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionNo
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
National market surveillance authorities, at least one designated by each Member State under Article 70(1).
What it reaches
How the hook was established
express
What makes it apply
Market targeting
Obligation class
Governance, DPIA
What it makes you log
Who may demand the log
Regulator
What the log must hold
Decision basis
Logging duty
A provider relying on the Article 6(3) derogation must document its assessment before placing the system on the market or putting it into service, and provide that documentation to national competent authorities on request.
- Kind
- Explicit
- As of
- 23 September 2026
- Provision
- Article 6(4)
- Trigger
- high_risk_systems
Who checks it
Audit expectation
on_request
Also on the record
EEA status
- Status
- Pending
- Source link
- https://www.efta.int/eea-lex/32024r1689
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
By derogation from the default rule that every AI system listed in Annex III is high-risk, Article 6(3) provides that 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 a decision's outcome, and it performs only a narrow procedural task, improves the result of a previously completed human activity, detects deviations from prior human decision-making patterns without replacing or influencing them, or performs a preparatory task to an Annex III assessment; a system that profiles natural persons is always high-risk regardless.
A provider who relies on this derogation must document the assessment before placing the system on the market or putting it into service, is subject to the Article 49(2) EU database registration obligation, and must provide the documentation of the assessment to national competent authorities on request.
Article 6 sits in Chapter III, Section 1, so like Articles 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 19, 21 and 26 it takes effect on the schedule the Digital Omnibus on AI (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, in force since 27 July 2026) wrote into Article 113: 2 December 2027 for a system classified as high-risk under Article 6(2) and Annex III, the only route this provision concerns, rather than the Regulation's general 2 August 2026 application date.
Article 6(5), the Commission's duty to publish classification guidelines by 2 February 2026, is expressly excluded from that deferral.
When LexLint raises it
high_risk_decisions
Read the law
official consolidated Official Journal text, EUR-Lex
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.