EU AI Act for ecommerce: what Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 changes

What you should know

AI chatbots and other systems interacting directly with people must make clear that the user is dealing with AI unless this is obvious.

The delayed dates are 2 December 2027 for Annex III and 2 August 2028 for AI embedded in regulated products; they do not delay chatbot transparency.

Only Article 50(2) machine-readable marking received a limited transition until 2 December 2026 for systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026.

Where ecommerce stores go wrong

Stores sometimes confuse any chatbot with an AI system or assume all AI Act duties were delayed.

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Ordinary AI-assisted product copy is not automatically subject to deepfake or public-interest text labelling.

What you can improve

Inventory chatbots and assistants, determine whether each legally qualifies as an AI system and document provider/deployer roles.

Ensure any AI notice is clear and accessible before or no later than the first interaction.

Merqivio flags public evidence and uncertainty but does not automatically call an unclassifiable chatbot a violation.

What Merqivio does

Merqivio checks publicly accessible product pages and machine-readable signals. No passwords are required and nothing is changed on your store. A readiness score does not guarantee inclusion or ranking in an external AI shopping platform.