AI Law

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Artificial intelligence touches almost every area of law: regulation, contracts, liability, copyright, data protection and employment law. We advise companies that develop, offer or use AI, and act for those whose rights are infringed by AI systems. This page gives an overview of the AI Act and links to our detailed pages.

AI Act: deadlines after the Digital Omnibus

The AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) entered into force on 1 August 2024 and applies in stages. With the Digital Omnibus on AI, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, which entered into force on 27 July 2026, the EU postponed some deadlines.

From	What applies
2.2.2025	Prohibited practices (Art. 5) and AI literacy measures (Art. 4)
2.8.2025	Obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models (GPAI), governance, penalties
2.8.2026	Transparency obligations under Art. 50, including labelling of deepfakes and AI-generated text on matters of public interest
2.12.2026	Machine-readable marking of synthetic content (Art. 50(2)) also for systems placed on the market before 2.8.2026; new ban on AI systems generating intimate images of real people without consent
2.12.2027	High-risk AI under Annex III, for example in recruitment, credit scoring, education and critical infrastructure
2.8.2028	High-risk AI as a safety component of products under Annex I, such as machinery and medical devices

The AI literacy obligation in Art. 4 was softened: providers and deployers must now take measures to promote the AI literacy of their staff. Relief for SMEs will also apply to small mid-cap companies.

Supervision in Germany: KI-MIG and Bundesnetzagentur

The German implementing act, the AI Market Surveillance and Innovation Promotion Act (KI-MIG), entered into force on 29 July 2026. The central market surveillance authority is the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). For AI in regulated products, the existing sector authorities remain competent; for financial services, BaFin. Fines under the AI Act reach up to EUR 35 million or 7 per cent of worldwide annual turnover; under German administrative offences law, objections go first to the local courts.

Our pages on AI law

Regulation

• AI Act: classifying AI systems, roles in the value chain, obligations.
• Obligations for AI providers: conformity assessment, technical documentation, GPAI obligations, transparency.
• Using AI in your business: obligations as deployer, AI policy, approval processes.
• AI literacy under Art. 4 (in German): training concepts and documentation.

Contracts, liability and copyright

• AI contracts (in German): licence and SaaS contracts for AI, rights in inputs and outputs, allocation of liability.
• AI liability (in German): contract, tort and the new product liability regime covering software from 9.12.2026.
• AI, copyright and deepfakes: training, opt-out, protection of AI output, current cases.
• AI training and text and data mining (in German): sections 44b and 60d of the German Copyright Act (UrhG).

Employment, data protection and infringements

• AI in HR (in German): recruitment, works council co-determination, Art. 22 GDPR.
• Infringements by AI (in German): false statements by chatbots, voice and image imitation, trade mark infringements.

Case law on AI and copyright

Two German cases shape the debate. On 10 December 2025 the Hamburg Higher Regional Court (5 U 104/24) confirmed that the association LAION was allowed to reproduce photos for a training dataset and granted leave to appeal to the Federal Court of Justice. On 11 November 2025 the Munich I Regional Court (42 O 14139/24) held that a language model which memorises and reproduces song lyrics reproduces them, and that the text and data mining exception does not cover this (GEMA v OpenAI); the judgment is not final.

Typical matters in AI law

• Classifying an AI system under the AI Act and distinguishing provider and deployer roles
• Introducing copilots and chatbots with an AI policy, works agreement and data protection review
• Negotiating AI licence and development contracts
• Reviewing training data and opt-out strategies for rights holders
• Enforcing claims against deepfakes and AI-generated false statements

FAQs on AI law

Does the AI Act apply if we only use ChatGPT or Copilot?

Yes, as a deployer. For most office uses the obligations are limited: AI literacy measures, transparency for deepfakes and AI-generated text on matters of public interest, and the general rules of data protection and employment law.

When is an AI system high-risk?

When it is used in one of the areas listed in Annex III, such as recruitment and promotion, lending or access to education, or serves as a safety component of a regulated product. These obligations apply from 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028 respectively.

Who owns AI-generated content?

Purely machine-generated content is generally not protected by copyright under German law because there is no personal intellectual creation. Protection may arise where a human shapes the result decisively. Who may use the results should still be agreed by contract.