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July 3 EST: Europe’s landmark AI Act may be headed for a slower rollout than planned. Though the regulation officially entered into force on August 1, 2024, key enforcement provisions—especially those targeting General-Purpose AI (GPAI) systems—are under growing pressure to be delayed. The reason? Industry confusion, cost concerns, and a crucial compliance roadmap that still doesn’t exist.
Code of Practice: Delayed and Decisive
At the heart of the slowdown is a mandatory Code of Practice the document expected to spell out how companies can comply with GPAI rules. Originally due in May 2025, the Code has now been postponed until at least late 2025, according to EU officials cited by Reuters. That means developers of powerful AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Mistral will be expected to meet legally binding transparency obligations on August 2, 2025, without the promised regulatory playbook.
This has rattled both regulators and the regulated.
Business Leaders Sound the Alarm
More than 45 major firms—including Google, Meta, Airbus, ASML, and BNP Paribas—have signed an open letter calling for a two-year delay to the Act’s enforcement. Their main gripe? No one’s quite sure what compliance looks like, yet the penalties are already looming.
Backing the call are government figures and tech lobbyists, including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and CCIA Europe, a powerful U.S.-backed trade group. They’re urging the Commission to “stop the clock” until companies have enough guidance to realistically meet the new rules.
“We don’t oppose regulation,” one senior executive at a European AI company told The Financial Times. “But enforcing without a map is not regulation—it’s a trap.”
EU Officials Weigh a Course Correction
Publicly, the European Commission is still insisting the Act’s phased enforcement will continue as planned. A spokesperson told Reuters that guidance for GPAI providers will be released “in time” before the August 2025 deadline.
But behind closed doors, officials aren’t ruling anything out. Henna Virkkunen, a key EU tech policy leader, acknowledged that “all options remain open” if the Code isn’t finalized in time.
That includes partial delays, simplified obligations, or some form of grace period—measures that wouldn’t derail the law entirely, but would soften the blow for firms already struggling to decode the fine print.
What Happens Next?
Right now, enforcement is still officially scheduled to begin on August 2, 2025, for GPAI systems. Other parts of the Act—like bans on high-risk biometric surveillance—kick in as early as February 2025, with additional high-risk AI obligations landing by 2026.
But without a Code in hand, legal uncertainty is mounting. Companies are unsure whether to pause rollouts, double down on legal counsel, or start sandboxing solutions that may later be noncompliant.
This confusion hits smaller companies especially hard. While Big Tech can absorb compliance costs and lawyer up, startups and SMEs risk being squeezed out of the EU market entirely.
“It’s like being handed a toolkit without knowing what you’re supposed to build,” said a founder of a German AI startup. “You can try to guess, but if you guess wrong, you’re out.”
Balancing Enforcement and Innovation
The AI Act is a bold regulatory experiment: the first of its kind globally to create binding rules for general-purpose models. But like any ambitious rollout, its success depends on pacing. Move too fast, and the EU risks stifling innovation. Move too slow, and the public trust it aims to protect may erode.
Brussels has so far signaled it wants to hit its timeline. But the Code delay and growing political noise suggest flexibility may be inevitable.
For now, companies will be watching the calendar—and Brussels’ next move—closely. Until there’s clarity, the question remains not if enforcement will come, but whether anyone will be ready when it does.
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