{"answer_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:answer:artikel-61-ai-act","canonical_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-61-ai-act","query":"What obligations does the provider of an AI system have under Article 61 of the AI Act?","lang":"en","view":"full","mode":"obligation","question":"What obligations does the provider of an AI system have under Article 61 of the AI Act?","situation":"Article 61 of the AI Act covers informed consent of test subjects for testing in real world conditions. If you test a high-risk AI system in real world conditions outside an AI regulatory sandbox, freely-given informed consent must be obtained from every test subject before they participate. Beforehand the subject receives concise, clear, relevant and understandable information on five prescribed topics: the nature and objectives of the testing and the possible inconvenience, the conditions under which the testing is to be conducted including the expected duration of participation, their rights and guarantees including the right to refuse and the right to withdraw at any time without detriment and without justification, the arrangements for requesting the reversal or the disregarding of the outputs of the system, and the Union-wide unique single identification number with the contact details from whom further information can be obtained. The consent is dated and documented and the subject is given a copy. The duty sits with the provider of an AI system. This obligation has applied since 2 August 2026.","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-61-informed-consent","label":"Article 61: informed consent of test subjects for testing in real world conditions","summary":"If you test a high-risk AI system in real world conditions outside an AI regulatory sandbox, freely-given informed consent must be obtained from every test subject before they participate. Beforehand the subject receives concise, clear, relevant and understandable information on five prescribed topics: the nature and objectives of the testing and the possible inconvenience, the conditions under which the testing is to be conducted including the expected duration of participation, their rights and guarantees including the right to refuse and the right to withdraw at any time without detriment and without justification, the arrangements for requesting the reversal or the disregarding of the outputs of the system, and the Union-wide unique single identification number with the contact details from whom further information can be obtained. The consent is dated and documented and the subject is given a copy.","legal_status":"applicable","deadline_at":"2026-08-02T00:00:00.000Z","high_risk_regime_from":null,"human_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/verplichtingen/article-61-informed-consent","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: for the purpose of testing in real world conditions under Article 60, freely-given informed consent shall be obtained from the subjects of testing prior to their participation in such testing and after their having been duly informed with concise, clear, relevant, and understandable information regarding: (a) the nature and objectives of the testing in real world conditions and the possible inconvenience that may be linked to their participation; (b) the conditions under which the testing in real world conditions is to be conducted, including the expected duration of the subject or subjects participation; (c) their rights, and the guarantees regarding their participation, in particular their right to refuse to participate in, and the right to withdraw from, testing in real world conditions at any time without any resulting detriment and without having to provide any justification; (d) the arrangements for requesting the reversal or the disregarding of the predictions, recommendations or decisions of the AI system; (e) the Union-wide unique single identification number of the testing in real world conditions in accordance with Article 60(4) point (c), and the contact details of the provider or its legal representative from whom further information can be obtained. Paragraph 2 provides: the informed consent shall be dated and documented and a copy shall be given to the subjects of testing or their legal representative.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 61(1) and (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":"Article 60(4), point (i), sets as a condition: the subjects of the testing in real world conditions have given informed consent in accordance with Article 61, or in the case of law enforcement, where the seeking of informed consent would prevent the AI system from being tested, the testing itself and the outcome of the testing in the real world conditions shall not have any negative effect on the subjects, and their personal data shall be deleted after the test is performed. Article 60(5) provides: any subjects of the testing in real world conditions, or their legally designated representative, as appropriate, may, without any resulting detriment and without having to provide any justification, withdraw from the testing at any time by revoking their informed consent and may request the immediate and permanent deletion of their personal data. The withdrawal of the informed consent shall not affect the activities already carried out. Article 60(2), as replaced by Article 1, point (24), of Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, provides: providers or prospective providers may conduct testing of high-risk AI systems referred to in Annex III or covered by Union harmonisation legislation listed in Section A of Annex I in real world conditions at any time before the placing on the market or the putting into service of the high-risk AI system on their own or in partnership with one or more deployers or prospective deployers. Until 27 July 2026 that paragraph named only the Annex III route; the consent of Article 61 therefore now also applies when testing high-risk AI in a regulated product under Section A of Annex I.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 60(2); Article 60(4), points (c), (h) and (i); Article 60(5); 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":"editorial_interpretation","statement":"This is the only place in this Regulation where the individual consent of a natural person is a condition. Nowhere else does the lawfulness of something you do turn on a signature from the person it affects. That makes it tempting to reuse the existing GDPR consent form, and that is exactly where it goes wrong. Consent under Article 61 is consent to take part in a test; it is one of the cumulative conditions in Article 60(4) under which you may test in real world conditions. Whether, and on what basis, personal data may be processed in that test is not governed by Article 61 and this Regulation does not say so here. That remains a question of data protection law, and you answer it separately. The two do not coincide and one does not replace the other. Look as well at the content of the five points, because two of them appear in no standard form. Point (e) requires the Union-wide unique single identification number of the testing from Article 60(4), point (c). That number arises on registration, so you can only approach the subject once that registration is done; anyone who recruits first and registers afterwards has inverted the order. Point (d) requires you to explain how someone can request the reversal or the disregarding of the predictions, recommendations or decisions of the system. That is not only information: Article 60(4), point (k), requires those outputs to be capable of being effectively reversed and disregarded. If you cannot describe that mechanism, it probably does not exist and your test design does not qualify.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 60(2); Article 60(4), points (c), (h) and (i); Article 60(5); 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":"Draw up an information pack per test that names each of the five points of paragraph 1 separately, and check the pack line by line against those five points rather than against your existing privacy notice. Obtain the Union-wide unique single identification number from the registration under Article 60(4), point (c), and put it in the pack together with the contact details of the provider or the legal representative before you approach the first subject. Under point (d), describe the concrete mechanism through which someone can request the reversal or the disregarding of an output, with the place the request arrives and the period within which it is handled. Record a dated consent per subject and give a copy to the subject or the legal representative; keep that record separately from your application logs, so you can show it without consulting the system. Set up a withdrawal route with a named recipient, a period and a processing step for the request for immediate and permanent deletion of personal data, and rehearse that route once before the test starts. In the agreement with your deployer under Article 60(4), point (h), record who informs, who obtains consent, who keeps the record and who receives a withdrawal. If you test in the law enforcement domain and are considering the exception in Article 60(4), point (i), record in advance why seeking consent would prevent the testing, and how you ensure that the test has no negative effect and that the personal data are deleted after the test.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 60(2); Article 60(4), points (c), (h) and (i); Article 60(5); 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":"Inform the test subject and obtain consent to participate","summary":"Give every test subject concise, clear, relevant and understandable information beforehand on the five points of Article 61(1), then obtain freely-given informed consent, date and document that consent, and give a copy to the subject or the legal representative."}],"evidence":[{"label":"Information pack for subjects of testing in real world conditions","summary":"The document that precedes consent: per test the five points of Article 61(1) written out, with the Union-wide unique single identification number, the contact details from whom further information can be obtained, and the mechanism for requesting the reversal or the disregarding of an output. This is a different item from the dated consent record itself, which sits in article-61-informed-consent-record.","url":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/ai-act/artikel/61"}],"guidance":[],"examples":[],"standards":[],"definitions":[],"answer_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-61-ai-act","follow_up_questions":[],"disclaimer":"General interpretation, not legal advice. The official source remains authoritative.","methodology":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/methodologie"}