{"answer_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:answer:artikel-46-ai-act","canonical_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-46-ai-act","query":"What does Article 46 of the AI Act say about derogation from conformity assessment procedure?","lang":"en","view":"full","mode":"obligation","question":"What does Article 46 of the AI Act say about derogation from conformity assessment procedure?","situation":"Article 46 of the AI Act covers derogation from conformity assessment procedure. By way of derogation from Article 43, a market surveillance authority may, upon a duly justified request, authorise the placing on the market or the putting into service of specific high-risk AI systems within the territory of the Member State concerned, for exceptional reasons of public security, the protection of life and health of persons, environmental protection or the protection of key industrial and infrastructural assets. The authorisation is for a limited period while the conformity assessment is carried out, and those procedures are completed without undue delay. Law-enforcement authorities and civil protection authorities may start without an authorisation in a situation of urgency, provided that it is requested without undue delay; if it is refused, use stops with immediate effect and all results and outputs are discarded. The authorisation is issued only if the system complies with the requirements of Section 2, goes to the Commission and the other Member States, and is deemed justified after fifteen calendar days without objection. This provision concerns the deployer and the provider of an AI system. This provision applies today.","likely_role":null,"note":null,"matched_terms":[],"dataset":{"id":"praxikon:sys:registry:dataset:ai-act-implementation-graph","version":"2.2.0","schema_version":"1.5.0","effective_at":"2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z","known_at":"2026-09-06T00:00:00.000Z","last_reviewed_at":"2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z","licence":"https://www.praxikon.com/nl/legal/terms","canonical_url":"https://www.praxikon.com/api/v1/entities"},"obligations":[{"slug":"article-46-derogation-from-conformity-assessment","label":"Article 46: derogation from conformity assessment procedure","summary":"By way of derogation from Article 43, a market surveillance authority may, upon a duly justified request, authorise the placing on the market or the putting into service of specific high-risk AI systems within the territory of the Member State concerned, for exceptional reasons of public security, the protection of life and health of persons, environmental protection or the protection of key industrial and infrastructural assets. The authorisation is for a limited period while the conformity assessment is carried out, and those procedures are completed without undue delay. Law-enforcement authorities and civil protection authorities may start without an authorisation in a situation of urgency, provided that it is requested without undue delay; if it is refused, use stops with immediate effect and all results and outputs are discarded. The authorisation is issued only if the system complies with the requirements of Section 2, goes to the Commission and the other Member States, and is deemed justified after fifteen calendar days without objection.","legal_status":"applicable","deadline_at":null,"high_risk_regime_from":null,"human_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/verplichtingen/article-46-derogation-from-conformity-assessment","api":"https://www.praxikon.com/api/v1/obligations?lang=en","official_source":"https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj","citations":[{"kind":"official_fact","statement":"Paragraph 1 provides the following. By way of derogation from Article 43 and upon a duly justified request, any market surveillance authority may authorise the placing on the market or the putting into service of specific high-risk AI systems within the territory of the Member State concerned, for exceptional reasons of public security or the protection of life and health of persons, environmental protection or the protection of key industrial and infrastructural assets. That authorisation shall be for a limited period while the necessary conformity assessment procedures are being carried out, taking into account the exceptional reasons justifying the derogation. The completion of those procedures shall be undertaken without undue delay. Paragraph 2 provides the following. In a duly justified situation of urgency for exceptional reasons of public security or in the case of specific, substantial and imminent threat to the life or physical safety of natural persons, law-enforcement authorities or civil protection authorities may put a specific high-risk AI system into service without the authorisation referred to in paragraph 1, provided that such authorisation is requested during or after the use without undue delay. If the authorisation referred to in paragraph 1 is refused, the use of the high-risk AI system shall be stopped with immediate effect and all the results and outputs of such use shall be immediately discarded.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 46(1)-(2)","source_url":"https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj","eli":"http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj"},{"kind":"official_fact","statement":"Paragraph 3 provides the following. The authorisation referred to in paragraph 1 shall be issued only if the market surveillance authority concludes that the high-risk AI system complies with the requirements of Section 2. The market surveillance authority shall inform the Commission and the other Member States of any authorisation issued pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2. This obligation shall not cover sensitive operational data in relation to the activities of law-enforcement authorities. Paragraph 4 provides the following. Where, within 15 calendar days of receipt of the information referred to in paragraph 3, no objection has been raised by either a Member State or the Commission in respect of an authorisation issued by a market surveillance authority of a Member State in accordance with paragraph 1, that authorisation shall be deemed justified.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 46(3)-(4)","source_url":"https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj","eli":"http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj"},{"kind":"official_fact","statement":"Paragraph 5 provides the following. Where, within 15 calendar days of receipt of the notification referred to in paragraph 3, objections are raised by a Member State against an authorisation issued by a market surveillance authority of another Member State, or where the Commission considers the authorisation to be contrary to Union law, or the conclusion of the Member States regarding the compliance of the system as referred to in paragraph 3 to be unfounded, the Commission shall, without delay, enter into consultations with the relevant Member State. The operators concerned shall be consulted and have the possibility to present their views. Having regard thereto, the Commission shall decide whether the authorisation is justified. The Commission shall address its decision to the Member State concerned and to the relevant operators. Paragraph 6 provides the following. Where the Commission considers the authorisation unjustified, it shall be withdrawn by the market surveillance authority of the Member State concerned. Paragraph 7 provides the following. For high-risk AI systems related to products covered by Union harmonisation legislation listed in Section A of Annex I, only the derogations from the conformity assessment established in that Union harmonisation legislation shall apply.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 46(5)-(7)","source_url":"https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj","eli":"http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj"},{"kind":"editorial_interpretation","statement":"This is the only route in the Regulation along which a high-risk AI system reaches the market or is put into service without a completed conformity assessment, and that is exactly why it is not a commercial route. Three things make that firm. The grounds are exhaustive and none of them is about the supplier: public security, the protection of life and health of persons, environmental protection, the protection of key industrial and infrastructural assets. A tight delivery deadline, a tender closing in, or a notified body with a waiting list are not among them. The derogation moreover concerns only the procedure of Article 43 and not the substance: paragraph 3 allows the authorisation only where the market surveillance authority concludes that the system complies with the requirements of Section 2. So it does not buy you time to do Articles 9 to 15 later; at most it buys time for the paperwork of the assessment. And it is closed off geographically: the authorisation operates within the territory of the Member State concerned, which means a system running on this basis in one Member State simply has no basis in the next. Note finally paragraph 7. For high-risk AI systems related to products under Section A of Annex I this Article is not a route: there, only the derogations of the sectoral harmonisation legislation apply. Anyone building a regulated product therefore looks for the exit in his own sectoral framework and not here.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 43(1), (2) and (4); Article 47(1); Article 48(1); Article 49(1); Article 79(1); Chapter III, Section 5, and Article 113, second paragraph","source_url":"https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj","eli":"http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj"},{"kind":"recommended_action","statement":"Treat this route as a contingency plan and not as a planning option. Establish, before you need it, whether it is open to you at all: if your system sits in a product from Section A of Annex I, paragraph 7 closes it and you look for the derogation in your sectoral framework. If it is open, draft the reasoning document now: which of the four exceptional reasons you invoke, on which facts, why delay is not possible, and why this system in particular. Add to it the evidence that the system complies with the requirements of Section 2, because without that conclusion the market surveillance authority cannot issue the authorisation. Record where the conformity assessment stands and what still has to happen, with an end date, and name the person who carries that procedure through while the system runs. If you prepare for the reversed order of paragraph 2, that comes with an exit plan written in advance: which decisions, files, alerts and derived datasets count as results and outputs, how they can be traced per system version, who discards them, within what period, and what happens to decisions that rested on them. Put the fifteen calendar days after the notification of paragraph 3 in your calendar as the moment the authorisation first counts as justified, and reckon with withdrawal after that. Finally, set out in supplier contracts who submits the request, who supplies the reasoning and who bears the cost if the authorisation is refused or withdrawn.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 43(1), (2) and (4); Article 47(1); Article 48(1); Article 49(1); Article 79(1); Chapter III, Section 5, and Article 113, second paragraph","source_url":"https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj","eli":"http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj"}]}],"conditional":[],"sources":[{"id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","title":"EU Artificial Intelligence Act 2024/1689","publisher":"European Parliament and Council","canonical_url":"https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj","eli":"http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj","source_version":"original-oj-2024-07-12","verified_at":"2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z"}],"first_actions":[{"label":"Prepare a derogation request and the exit plan that goes with it","summary":"Write in advance the reasoning paragraph 1 calls for, with the exceptional reason invoked, the evidence that the system complies with the requirements of Section 2, the status of the ongoing conformity assessment, and an exit plan in case the authorisation is refused or withdrawn."}],"evidence":[{"label":"File accompanying a request to derogate from the conformity assessment","summary":"Per request: which system and which version, which exceptional reason was invoked and on which facts, to which market surveillance authority and on what date the request was made, what the status of the conformity assessment was, which end date was agreed, when the notification of paragraph 3 was made, and what the outcome was.","url":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/ai-act/artikel/46"}],"guidance":[],"examples":[],"standards":[],"definitions":[],"answer_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-46-ai-act","follow_up_questions":[],"disclaimer":"General interpretation, not legal advice. The official source remains authoritative.","methodology":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/methodologie"}