PPC Land Examines EU Deepfake Rules for Non-EU Advertisers
How Article 50 of the EU AI Act may apply to advertising deepfakes used by non-EU advertisers is the subject of PPC Land’s analysis published on November 12, 2026. It examines disclosure responsibilities, including when agencies or clients may qualify as deployers, rather than treating all advertisers as deployers automatically.
According to the European Commission, Article 50 has applied since August 2, 2026. It requires deployers using AI to produce or alter deepfake imagery, sound or video to identify that material as artificially generated or manipulated. The Commission defines deployers as entities operating AI systems under their authority, with an exclusion for personal use outside professional activities.
In PPC Land’s reading of the Commission’s guidance, an agency or another legal entity may hold that responsibility where it controls the AI use. A client’s direction of the work or choice of tools may also bring it within the deployer definition, depending on its control. Separately, the Commission’s FAQ states that providers based outside the EU fall within scope when output from their systems is used within the EU.
The Act assigns different transparency tasks to providers and deployers: providers must mark generated or altered output in machine-readable form, while deployers must disclose deepfakes to their audience. According to the Commission, that disclosure must be readily identifiable and clear by the audience’s first exposure.
According to PPC Land’s account of the guidance, reduced disclosure requirements for clearly creative or fictional material depend on the individual case. Its examples outside that treatment include a simulated consumer promoting goods and a realistic synthetic influencer demonstrating a sponsored product.
For text, PPC Land’s account of Commission guidance distinguishes ordinary advertising and product descriptions altered with AI from material covered by Article 50(4)’s public-interest labeling requirement. Such advertising text is generally outside that rule, but claims concerning health, consumer safety or sustainability may be exceptions.
The Commission states that violations can carry penalties reaching €15 million or 3% of global turnover for the previous financial year. Proportionality may be considered for small and medium-sized enterprises and small mid-cap companies. Enforcement rests chiefly with national market-surveillance authorities; the Commission assigns the AI Office a narrower role covering specified systems and the European Data Protection Supervisor responsibility for systems used by EU institutions.
Participation in the transparency code is optional, according to the Commission, but providers and deployers retain their compliance responsibilities. Organisations that do not use the code must demonstrate compliance by other adequate means.
The Commission also states that material generated before August 2, 2026 does not require retrospective labeling. PPC Land’s analysis adds that holders of older, unlabeled deepfakes are encouraged to add labels when doing so would not involve disproportionate effort.
* This article is based on publicly available information at the time of writing.