{"answer_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:answer:artikel-62-ai-act","canonical_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-62-ai-act","query":"What does Article 62 of the AI Act say about measures for providers and deployers that are SMEs or start-ups?","lang":"en","view":"full","mode":"obligation","question":"What does Article 62 of the AI Act say about measures for providers and deployers that are SMEs or start-ups?","situation":"Article 62 of the AI Act covers measures for providers and deployers that are SMEs or start-ups. Member States give SMEs, including start-ups, with a registered office or a branch in the Union priority access to the AI regulatory sandboxes, organise specific awareness raising and training activities, use or establish dedicated communication channels to provide advice and answer queries, and facilitate the participation of SMEs in the standardisation development process. When setting the fees for conformity assessment under Article 43, the specific interests and needs of SME providers are taken into account, those fees being reduced proportionately to their size, market size and other relevant indicators. The AI Office provides standardised templates, maintains a single information platform, organises communication campaigns and promotes the convergence of best practices in public procurement. This article lowers no requirement; it makes the road towards one cheaper and more accessible. 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-62-sme-support-measures","label":"Article 62: measures for providers and deployers that are SMEs or start-ups","summary":"Member States give SMEs, including start-ups, with a registered office or a branch in the Union priority access to the AI regulatory sandboxes, organise specific awareness raising and training activities, use or establish dedicated communication channels to provide advice and answer queries, and facilitate the participation of SMEs in the standardisation development process. When setting the fees for conformity assessment under Article 43, the specific interests and needs of SME providers are taken into account, those fees being reduced proportionately to their size, market size and other relevant indicators. The AI Office provides standardised templates, maintains a single information platform, organises communication campaigns and promotes the convergence of best practices in public procurement. This article lowers no requirement; it makes the road towards one cheaper and more accessible.","legal_status":"applicable","deadline_at":null,"high_risk_regime_from":null,"human_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/verplichtingen/article-62-sme-support-measures","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: Member States shall undertake the following actions: (a) provide SMEs, including start-ups, having a registered office or a branch in the Union, with priority access to the AI regulatory sandboxes, to the extent that they fulfil the eligibility conditions and selection criteria; the priority access shall not preclude other SMEs, including start-ups, other than those referred to in this paragraph from access to the AI regulatory sandbox, provided that they also fulfil the eligibility conditions and selection criteria; (b) organise specific awareness raising and training activities on the application of this Regulation tailored to the needs of SMEs including start-ups, deployers and, as appropriate, local public authorities; (c) utilise existing dedicated channels and where appropriate, establish new ones for communication with SMEs including start-ups, deployers, other innovators and, as appropriate, local public authorities to provide advice and respond to queries about the implementation of this Regulation, including as regards participation in AI regulatory sandboxes; (d) facilitate the participation of SMEs and other relevant stakeholders in the standardisation development process. Paragraph 2 provides: the specific interests and needs of the SME providers, including start-ups, shall be taken into account when setting the fees for conformity assessment under Article 43, reducing those fees proportionately to their size, market size and other relevant indicators.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 62(1) to (3)","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":"Article 62 is not an exemption but a facility, and that distinction is the whole article. Nowhere does it say that an SME or a start-up has to comply with less. What changes is the price and the access: priority access to the AI regulatory sandbox, tailored training and awareness raising, a channel to put questions, a seat at the standardisation table, and reduced fees for conformity assessment under Article 43. Anyone reading this article as an SME regime with lighter requirements is looking at the wrong provision; the only relief from a substantive requirement in this Regulation sits in Article 63 and touches only the quality management system of Article 17. Since 27 July 2026 that relief is available to SMEs, including start-ups, and no longer to microenterprises alone: Article 1, point (26), of Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 replaced Article 63(1) to that effect. A standalone small enterprise that is not a microenterprise therefore does fall within it, provided it has no partner enterprises or linked enterprises within the meaning of Recommendation 2003/361/EC. Read paragraph 2 carefully as well, because it says something stronger than is usually assumed. It is not a power but an instruction: the fees are reduced, proportionately to the size of the provider, the market size and other relevant indicators. If you receive a quotation for a conformity assessment without that proportionality being made visible, that is a question you can put and whose answer you can record. Do not confuse that reduction with free access to an AI regulatory sandbox: that sits in Article 58(2), point (d), applies to SMEs including start-ups, and expressly leaves standing the exceptional costs that national competent authorities may recover in a fair and proportionate manner. Two different provisions, two different flows of money.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 43; Article 58(2), point (d); Article 63; 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":"Record once whether your organisation is an SME or a start-up in the sense in which this Regulation uses that word, with the reasoning and the date attached, and whether you have a registered office or a branch in the Union; refresh that file at every change in the corporate structure. Find out which national competent authority in your Member State runs the AI regulatory sandbox and which channel it offers for questions about implementation, and use that channel before you buy an expensive external route. If you apply for a conformity assessment under Article 43, ask explicitly with the quotation how the reduction proportionate to your size, the market size and other relevant indicators has been applied, and keep that answer with your procurement file. Sign up for the standardisation development process on the topics that touch your product, because that is the cheapest place to influence what later counts as sufficient. Before you build your own template, check whether the AI Office has already provided one, and use the single information platform as a first source rather than a secondary summary. Finally, do not assume that any of these facilities lightens a substantive requirement: in your planning, set out next to each facility which requirement continues to apply in full.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 43; Article 58(2), point (d); Article 63; 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":"Make use of the SME facilities in Article 62","summary":"Apply for priority access to the AI regulatory sandbox, use the national communication channel for questions about implementation, sign up for the standardisation process, and on a conformity assessment under Article 43 ask how the fee reduction has been applied."}],"evidence":[{"label":"File on SME status and facilities used","summary":"The substantiation of your status as an SME or start-up with the date, the evidence of a registered office or branch in the Union, and per facility what was applied for, with which body, on what date and with what outcome, including the answer to how the fee reduction was applied.","url":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/ai-act/artikel/62"}],"guidance":[],"examples":[],"standards":[],"definitions":[],"answer_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-62-ai-act","follow_up_questions":[],"disclaimer":"General interpretation, not legal advice. The official source remains authoritative.","methodology":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/methodologie"}