EU AI Act · Article 50
Be the agency that hands over certified AI creative.
From August 2, 2026, new AI transparency laws put marking duties on the AI model providers - and they are pushing brands and platforms to demand provenance from every agency they work with. Archibal is that documentation: signed C2PA credentials, a content fingerprint, and a certificate for the composite deliverable no single tool's marking covers.
until Article 50 applies - August 2, 2026
Does this apply to you?
If any of these sound like you, the clients and platforms you work with will be asking you for provenance from August 2, 2026.
You run an agency or studio
You generate images, video, or copy with AI for client campaigns that reach EU audiences.
Your clients will ask you for provenance.
You are a brand in-house team
Your team produces AI-assisted creative and publishes it to the market yourselves.
Your clients will ask you for provenance.
You are a production house
You deliver AI content to clients who need to prove how it was made.
Your clients will ask you for provenance.
You run a platform
Users publish AI-generated content through your product to an audience.
Your clients will ask you for provenance.
The regulatory clock is already running
Article 50 is one obligation on a widening timeline. Some rules already apply; others are weeks away.
EU AI Act · Article 50
AI media reaching EU audiences has to carry machine-readable disclosure.
Synthetic image, audio, video, and text needs an embedded, verifiable marking that a platform or regulator can check.
All EU-facing agencies, brands, and platforms
Most compliance tools tell you what to do. Archibal produces the proof.
Law firms
Interpret the regulation and send you a memo. Useful once. It doesn't touch a single asset.
Consultancies
Produce a gap-analysis report and leave. You still have to build and prove the marking yourself, per campaign.
Archibal
Generates the signed manifests, cryptographic fingerprints, and certificates that document exactly how your AI creative was made - the provenance your clients and the platforms you publish to now require - automatically, every time an asset is created or delivered.
From brief to provable delivery
The compliance record builds itself as you work - no separate documentation step.
Brief
Accept the project brief with its territories and channels.
Create
Build with your existing AI tools. Archibal captures what was used.
Review
Risk assessment runs automatically. Issues surface before delivery.
Deliver
Signed assets, a provenance record, and a verification link in one step.
Done
The client has proof. You have a permanent, verifiable record.
Who each law binds - and how Archibal helps
Most of these obligations fall on the AI model providers and the platforms, not on agencies - but they drive the provenance your clients now demand. Here is what Archibal hands you for each.
| Regulation | Who it binds / what it requires | How Archibal helps |
|---|---|---|
| EU AI Act - Article 50(2) | Binds AI model providers (Midjourney, OpenAI, Adobe) to mark synthetic image, audio, and video machine-readably. Not an obligation on your agency. | Signs C2PA credentials with the cryptographic provenance method Recital 133 names - covering the composite deliverable no single tool marks. |
| EU AI Act - Article 50(4) | Binds deployers to disclose deepfakes and certain AI content to the audience in a clear, human-readable way (a caption, label, or overlay). | Documents that the content is AI-generated and how - backing the audience-facing label you place at distribution. The label itself stays your responsibility. |
| EU Code of Practice on AI-generated content | A voluntary technique for layered marking: metadata plus provenance credentials. | Signed manifest, provenance metadata, and a perceptual fingerprint - all three layers. |
| California SB 942 | Binds large generative AI providers (1M+ users) to watermark output and offer a public detection tool. The duty is on the provider, not the agency using the tool. | Marks your composite deliverable and makes it publicly checkable - the provenance clients and platforms increasingly require. |
| China - AI content labeling | Binds platforms and providers to apply audience labels and invisible traceability metadata for Chinese audiences. | Supplies the signed manifest and traceability metadata your distribution partners are required to carry. |
| India - IT Rules amendment | Binds intermediary platforms to label AI content and carry traceable metadata where feasible. | Gives the platforms you publish through the provenance they need to surface. |
| South Korea - AI Basic Act | Binds providers and platforms to label AI content and watermark synthetic output. | Signed credentials and a fingerprint that travel with the asset into those channels. |
| German advertising guidance (2026) | Advises advertisers to label AI visuals in ads that resemble authentic content. | A territorial risk-register entry plus a certificate documenting the disclosure decision. |
| C2PA Conformance Program | A valid signed manifest for each media type. | Conformant signed output per asset, embedded or as a sidecar. |
Archibal produces the evidence; your legal and compliance function decides how it is used. See the field guide to AI disclosure laws for the full landscape.
Audit your existing library, free
Drop in any image, video, audio, or PDF. Archibal checks whether it already carries C2PA content credentials and what AI signals it contains - no account, no upload kept.
Check a fileArticle 50, answered
Does Article 50 apply to our agency if we are not based in the EU?
The machine-readable marking duty in Article 50(2) sits on the AI model providers, wherever you are based. What can reach your agency is Article 50(4) - the deployer duty to disclose deepfakes and certain AI content to EU audiences - and, in practice, your clients' and platforms' demand for provenance. Both follow the content into the EU market regardless of your headquarters.
What counts as "AI-generated" for disclosure purposes?
The obligation covers synthetic and meaningfully AI-manipulated audio, image, video, and text. A useful default: if a reasonable person could mistake it for authentically captured or human-authored content, treat it as in scope.
Do we label every AI-touched asset, or only fully synthetic ones?
The safest posture is to mark anything with material AI generation or manipulation. Archibal records provenance on every asset you run through it, so the marking exists whether or not a given piece turns out to need it.
What is the difference between machine-readable marking and a visible label?
A visible label is the "made with AI" a person reads - the human-readable disclosure Article 50(4) asks deployers to place. Machine-readable marking is the embedded, verifiable record (C2PA credentials, a fingerprint) a platform or regulator can check - the method Recital 133 names and Article 50(2) puts on the model providers. Archibal produces the machine-readable layer; you place the visible label at distribution.
Does an Archibal certificate count as Article 50 compliance evidence?
Article 50(2) machine-readable marking is an obligation on the AI system providers - Midjourney, Adobe, OpenAI - not on your agency. Archibal's C2PA manifest uses the cryptographic provenance method that Recital 133 of the AI Act names as a satisfying technique. For Article 50(4) - the deployer duty to disclose AI content to audiences - Archibal provides the documented record that you knew the content was AI-generated and delivered it with full provenance. The audience-facing label at distribution (a caption, an end-card) remains your responsibility.
What if a platform strips the C2PA manifest - is the provenance lost?
No. The perceptual fingerprint is derived from the content itself, so a stripped or re-encoded copy still matches back to its original signed record in the registry. The provenance survives even when the embedded metadata does not.
How long do we need to keep provenance records?
Plan for the statute of limitations in your publishing markets - commonly several years. Archibal keeps the certificate and provenance in a durable archive so the record is there when a question arrives long after the campaign ended.
Win the work. Prove the provenance.
Start free and deliver your next AI project with a certificate the client can verify themselves.