EU AI Act banned practices, mapped to what AI agents do
Article 5 bans certain AI practices outright. Most have applied since 2 February 2025, and two new ones apply from 2 December 2026. They cover what a system does, not what it is called, so an agent's actions or answers can fall under them.
The bans most likely to touch an agent
| Ban (Article 5(1)) | What the text bans | How an agent may touch it | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| (a) Manipulation | "purposefully manipulative or deceptive techniques" that materially distort behaviour and cause "significant harm" | A sales or support agent that pressures people into harmful decisions | 2 February 2025 |
| (b) Exploiting vulnerabilities | Exploiting vulnerabilities "due to their age, disability or a specific social or economic situation" | An agent that targets people in debt or older users with harmful offers | 2 February 2025 |
| (c) Social scoring | Scoring people "over a certain period of time based on their social behaviour or known, inferred or predicted personal or personality characteristics", leading to detrimental treatment | An agent that scores customers or staff and limits what they get | 2 February 2025 |
| (f) Emotions at work and school | Systems "to infer emotions of a natural person in the areas of workplace and education institutions", except for medical or safety reasons | A meeting copilot that reads stress or frustration from staff's voices or faces | 2 February 2025 |
| (g) Biometric categorisation | Categorising people "based on their biometric data to deduce or infer their race, political opinions, trade union membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation" | An agent that infers union sympathy or political views from photos | 2 February 2025 |
| (ba) Intimate imagery without consent | Generating or manipulating "realistic images, videos, audio or similar material of an identifiable natural person’s intimate parts" or sexually explicit activities without explicit consent | An image or media agent that produces such material | 2 December 2026 |
| (bb) Child sexual abuse material | Generating or manipulating material within the meaning of Directive 2011/93/EU | An image or media agent that produces such material | 2 December 2026 |
Safeguards matter for the new bans. Under Article 5(1a), a system that is not meant to make such material is still caught where its design makes it "a reasonably foreseeable and reproducible outcome, without requiring significant technical modification, and the system does not have reasonable and adequate technical safety measures and other safeguards to reliably prevent that generation or manipulation, taking into account reasonably foreseeable misuse, and to correct observed or reported misuse".
Where Astroware fits: HaloGuard EU is built to block AI output the EU AI Act bans or treats as high-risk, such as inferring workers' emotions from their face, voice or body.
Sources:
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 5, and Article 113 for the dates: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj
- Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 for points (ba), (bb), (1a) and (1b): http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/1744/oj
As of 28 October 2026. This page explains the text of the Act. It is not legal advice.