European UnionAI Act, Article 86 (right to explanation of individual decision-making)
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 86
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force 53 days, effective 2 August 2026.
An AI risk obligations rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 24 September 2026.
What it requires
- This right applies from 2 August 2026, but it reaches only a decision based on a high-risk AI system listed in Annex III, and an Annex III system is classified as high-risk under Article 6(2) only from 2 December 2027.
- If you are the deployer of a high-risk AI system listed in Annex III, other than the Annex III point 2 critical-infrastructure use case, and your decision based on the system's output produces a legal effect, or similarly significantly affects a person in a way they consider to adversely impact their health, safety or fundamental rights, give that person, on request, a clear and meaningful explanation of the AI system's role in the decision-making procedure and the main elements of the decision.
- You do not owe this explanation where Union or national law, consistent with Union law, provides an exception or restriction, or where the person already holds an equivalent right under other Union law.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Who enforces it
Settledness
Chapter IX applies from 2 August 2026 under Article 113's general rule, and Article 113 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 names no other date for it. Article 86(1) reaches only a 'high-risk AI system listed in Annex III', and Article 6(2), which makes an Annex III system high-risk, applies from 2 December 2027 under amended Article 113, third paragraph, point (c)(i).
- As of
- 24 September 2026
- Open questions
- Does the Article 86 right reach any decision before 2 December 2027, when the Article 6(2) rule that classifies an Annex III system as high-risk starts to apply?
What it reaches
How the hook was established
express
What makes it apply
Operator establishment, Place of effect
Obligation class
Data subject rights
What it makes you log
Who may demand the log
Data subject
What the log must hold
Decision basis
Logging duty
The Article does not use the words log, record or documentation, but a deployer cannot give a clear and meaningful explanation of the AI system's role in a specific decision on request unless it can reconstruct the decision's basis, which requires having kept enough of the record to do so.
- Kind
- Implicit
- As of
- 24 September 2026
- Provision
- Article 86(1)
- Trigger
- automated_decisions
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.
A natural person subject to a deployer's decision based on the output of a high-risk AI system listed in Annex III, other than an Annex III point 2 (critical infrastructure) system, that produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects them in a way they consider to adversely impact their health, safety or fundamental rights, has the right to obtain from the deployer a clear and meaningful explanation of the role the AI system played in the decision-making procedure and the main elements of the decision taken.
The right does not apply where Union or national law, consistent with Union law, provides an exception or restriction, and it applies only to the extent no other provision of Union law already grants an equivalent right.
Article 86 sits in Chapter IX, Section 4 (remedies), which applies from the Regulation's general date, 2 August 2026, but the right reaches only decisions based on a high-risk system listed in Annex III, and the rule classifying an Annex III system as high-risk, Article 6(2), applies from 2 December 2027 under the Digital Omnibus on AI (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744).
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.