AI Comply ShieldWhat are the fines for breaking Article 50?
Short answer: Breaches of the Article 50 transparency rules fall under Article 99(4) of the EU AI Act: fines of up to €15 million or 3% of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher. For SMEs and start-ups, it's whichever is lower. The often-quoted €35 million or 7% applies to banned AI practices under Article 5 - not to chatbot notices.
The three penalty tiers
Article 99(3): up to €35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover for prohibited AI practices under Article 5.
Article 99(4): up to €15 million or 3% for breaching other obligations - including the transparency obligations for providers and deployers in Article 50.
Article 99(5): up to €7.5 million or 1% for supplying incorrect, incomplete or misleading information to authorities.
The SME rule
For larger companies the higher of the two amounts applies. For SMEs, including start-ups, Article 99(6) says the lower amount applies. So for most small businesses the ceiling is 3% of turnover, not €15 million.
These are ceilings, not price tags
Fines are set by national authorities case by case, taking into account things like the nature, gravity and duration of the breach and the size of the business. A maximum is not a prediction of what anyone would actually be fined.
Why the 7% figure keeps appearing
The €35 million / 7% tier is the headline number for the AI Act, so it gets repeated everywhere - including on some compliance websites selling chatbot notices. It applies to banned practices, not to transparency. If someone quotes it to you about a chatbot label, they've picked the wrong tier.
Sources
Maintained by Penn Ltd. Last checked against the regulation text in September 2026. General information, not legal advice.