EU AI Act Omnibus: HRAIS deadlines extended, watermarking grace cut from 6 to 3 months

The EU Council and Parliament reached a political agreement on May 7, 2026 on the AI Act Omnibus amendments — extending compliance deadlines for high-risk AI systems (HRAIS), postponing the regulatory sandboxes deadline to August 2, 2027, and shortening the watermarking grace period for generative AI from 6 months to 3 months. The new watermarking deadline is December 2, 2026.

Mixed signal. The HRAIS deadline extension is industry-friendly — companies get more time to comply with the heaviest provisions. The watermarking acceleration is the opposite — providers now have a 3-month rather than 6-month window to ship transparency tooling.

The grandfathering rule is the under-noticed clause: generative AI placed on market before August 2, 2026 only needs to comply with watermarking from December 2, 2026 onwards. That is a six-month free pass for systems already in production — a deliberate carve-out to avoid breaking running apps.

Article 99 penalties remain steep: up to €35M or 7% of global turnover for prohibited practices, €15M or 3% for high-risk violations, €7.5M or 1% for misinformation. See our analysis → on what enterprises should do before August 2.

EU Council — AI Act Omnibus agreement → · Latham & Watkins — AI Act Update → · TechPolicy Press — Omnibus deal analysis →