Rules / EU AI Act / Article 26(10), first subparagraph
Article 26(10), first subparagraph, EU AI Act (European Union)
Ask a judicial or binding administrative authority to authorise each use of a post-remote biometric identification system in a targeted criminal search, beforehand or within 48 hours, and limit each use to what is strictly necessary.
WTA-R-EU-0001-077 Permanent ID
Scope
No authorisation is needed for the initial identification of a potential suspect based on objective and verifiable facts directly linked to the offence. Without prejudice to Directive (EU) 2016/680. Member States may set stricter rules.
Dates. Originally 2 Aug 2026 (Annex III) and 2 Aug 2027 (Annex I) under Art. 113. Digital Omnibus Art. 1(40)(b) moved Chapter III Sections 1 to 3 to 2 Dec 2027 for Annex III systems and 2 Aug 2028 for Annex I systems. Amended Art. 111(2): systems already placed on the market before then are covered only if significantly changed in design; public-authority systems must comply by 2 Aug 2030.
Penalty. Up to EUR 15m or 3% of total worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher (Art. 99(4)(e)); for SMEs and small mid-caps, whichever is lower (Art. 99(6) and (6a)).
History
- Added: Ask a judicial or binding administrative authority to authorise each use of a post-remote biometric identification system in a targeted criminal search, beforehand or within 48 hours, and limit each use to what is strictly necessary.
Cite this obligation
WTA-R-EU-0001-077: Article 26(10), first subparagraph, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act). wheresthe.ai, https://wheresthe.ai/id/WTA-R-EU-0001-077/ (checked 4 Nov 2026).
Other obligations under EU AI Act
Take measures to support the AI literacy of staff and other people operating or using AI systems on your behalf, considering their knowledge, experience, training and the context of use.
Do not place on the market, put into service or use AI that deploys subliminal, manipulative or deceptive techniques that materially distort behaviour and cause, or are reasonably likely to cause, significant harm.
Do not place on the market, put into service or use AI that exploits vulnerabilities due to age, disability or social or economic situation to materially distort behaviour in a way that causes, or is likely to cause, significant harm.
Do not place on the market, put into service or use AI for social scoring that leads to detrimental treatment in unrelated social contexts or treatment unjustified or disproportionate to the behaviour.
Do not place on the market, put into service or use AI to assess or predict the risk of a person committing a crime based solely on profiling or on personality traits and characteristics.
Do not place on the market, put into service or use AI that creates or expands facial recognition databases through untargeted scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage.
Do not place on the market, put into service or use AI to infer the emotions of people in workplaces or education institutions, except for medical or safety reasons.
Do not place on the market, put into service or use biometric categorisation systems that infer a person's race, political opinions, union membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation.
Do not use real-time remote biometric identification in publicly accessible spaces for law enforcement, except where strictly necessary for a listed objective and with prior judicial or independent authorisation.
Document your assessment before placing on the market an Annex III system you consider not high-risk, and give that documentation to national competent authorities on request.
Make sure a product that contains a high-risk AI system complies fully with every requirement of the Union harmonisation legislation in Annex I Section A that applies to it, as well as this Regulation.
Establish, implement, document and maintain a risk management system that runs through the high-risk system's lifecycle to identify, evaluate and mitigate risks to health, safety and fundamental rights.