Who does it apply to?

Providers and deployers of AI systems

What evidence is expected?

Classification record showing that no system falls under Article 5; acceptable use policy that forbids the banned uses; vendors' written confirmation for tools with emotion or biometric features.

Deadline tracker · EU

Prohibited AI practices, Article 5

Q: When does "Prohibited AI practices, Article 5" apply?

2 February 2025 (In force). Eight practices are banned: harmful manipulation and deception, exploiting vulnerabilities, social scoring, predicting crime from profiling alone, untargeted scraping of facial images, emotion recognition at work and in education (except for medical or safety reasons), biometric categorisation that infers sensitive characteristics, and real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces for law enforcement, with narrow exceptions. Fines up to 35 million euro or 7% of worldwide annual turnover. The Commission's guidelines include recruitment in the workplace emotion ban.

Eight practices are banned: harmful manipulation and deception, exploiting vulnerabilities, social scoring, predicting crime from profiling alone, untargeted scraping of facial images, emotion recognition at work and in education (except for medical or safety reasons), biometric categorisation that infers sensitive characteristics, and real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces for law enforcement, with narrow exceptions. Fines up to 35 million euro or 7% of worldwide annual turnover. The Commission's guidelines include recruitment in the workplace emotion ban.

Date: 2 February 2025 (610 days ago)
Status: In force
Law: EU AI Act (Reg. 2024/1689)
Jurisdiction: EU
Applies to: Providers and deployers of AI systems
Evidence expected: Classification record showing that no system falls under Article 5; acceptable use policy that forbids the banned uses; vendors' written confirmation for tools with emotion or biometric features.
Source: EU AI Act explorer, Article 5
Last reviewed: 2026-09-21
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What to do

Check whether it applies to you with the readiness scan.
Record the obligation against each affected system in your AI inventory.
The Compliance Kit holds the document that produces the evidence for this row.

Worked examples

A video interview tool scores candidates' emotions Prohibited (Article 5)
AI monitors and scores employees' productivity High-risk (Annex III)
AI grades tests or monitors exams in a training company High-risk (Annex III)

Related obligations

AI literacy duty, Article 4 2025-02-02
General-purpose AI model obligations 2025-08-02
Transparency obligations, Article 50 2026-08-02
Machine-readable marking of generative AI output 2026-12-02

Get an email before each date

One email 30 days and one 7 days before each date in the markets you tick, with who it applies to and what to have ready. Next: Machine-readable marking of generative AI output, 2 Dec 2026.

Cite this

Dutybound, "Prohibited AI practices, Article 5", AI regulation deadline tracker, reviewed 2026-09-21, https://getdutybound.com/deadlines/eu-art5-prohibited/. Primary source: https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/article/5/.