{"answer_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:answer:artikel-63-ai-act","canonical_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-63-ai-act","query":"What does Article 63 of the AI Act say about derogations for SMEs in the quality management system?","lang":"en","view":"full","mode":"obligation","question":"What does Article 63 of the AI Act say about derogations for SMEs in the quality management system?","situation":"Article 63 of the AI Act covers derogations for SMEs in the quality management system. SMEs, including start-ups, may comply with certain elements of the quality management system required by Article 17 in a simplified manner, provided that they do not have partner enterprises or linked enterprises within the meaning of Recommendation 2003/361/EC. Until 27 July 2026 this read microenterprises; Article 1, point (26), of Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 replaced paragraph 1 and widened the circle to SMEs. Which elements those are is for the Commission to set out in guidelines, considering the needs of SMEs and without affecting the level of protection or the need for compliance with the requirements in respect of high-risk AI systems. Paragraph 2 rules out any wider reading: the provision shall not be interpreted as exempting those operators from fulfilling any other requirements or obligations laid down in this Regulation, including those established in Articles 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 72 and 73. This provision concerns 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-63-sme-derogations","label":"Article 63: derogations for SMEs in the quality management system","summary":"SMEs, including start-ups, may comply with certain elements of the quality management system required by Article 17 in a simplified manner, provided that they do not have partner enterprises or linked enterprises within the meaning of Recommendation 2003/361/EC. Until 27 July 2026 this read microenterprises; Article 1, point (26), of Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 replaced paragraph 1 and widened the circle to SMEs. Which elements those are is for the Commission to set out in guidelines, considering the needs of SMEs and without affecting the level of protection or the need for compliance with the requirements in respect of high-risk AI systems. Paragraph 2 rules out any wider reading: the provision shall not be interpreted as exempting those operators from fulfilling any other requirements or obligations laid down in this Regulation, including those established in Articles 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 72 and 73.","legal_status":"applicable","deadline_at":null,"high_risk_regime_from":null,"human_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/verplichtingen/article-63-sme-derogations","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, as replaced by Article 1, point (26), of Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, provides: SMEs, including start-ups, may comply with certain elements of the quality management system required by Article 17 in a simplified manner, provided that they do not have partner enterprises or linked enterprises within the meaning of Recommendation 2003/361/EC. For that purpose, the Commission shall develop guidelines on the elements of the quality management system which may be complied with in a simplified manner considering the needs of SMEs, without affecting the level of protection or the need for compliance with the requirements in respect of high-risk AI systems. Paragraph 2 provides: paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be interpreted as exempting those operators from fulfilling any other requirements or obligations laid down in this Regulation, including those established in Articles 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 72 and 73.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 63(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 17(1) is the obligation to which the derogation in Article 63 relates and provides: providers of high-risk AI systems shall put a quality management system in place that ensures compliance with this Regulation. That system shall be documented in a systematic and orderly manner in the form of written policies, procedures and instructions, and shall include at least the following aspects: (a) a strategy for regulatory compliance, including compliance with conformity assessment procedures and procedures for the management of modifications to the high-risk AI system; (b) techniques, procedures and systematic actions to be used for the design, design control and design verification of the high-risk AI system.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 17(1); Article 62(2); 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 article is called derogations and that word does more harm than good. Nothing is abolished. Paragraph 1 says that certain elements of a single obligation, the quality management system of Article 17, may be complied with in a simplified manner. Paragraph 2 then says in as many words that this shall not be interpreted as exempting those operators from other requirements or obligations under this Regulation, and names nine of them: Articles 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 72 and 73. That is the enumeration that heads off the misunderstanding, and it covers exactly the heaviest requirements: risk management, data and data governance, technical documentation, record-keeping, transparency, human oversight, accuracy and cybersecurity, post-market monitoring, and the reporting of serious incidents. A microenterprise providing a high-risk system therefore does very nearly everything a large company does; only the form in which the quality management system is written down may be lighter. Two things to settle now. First the entry test, because it is stricter than it looks: on top of the thresholds in Recommendation 2003/361/EC there is the additional condition that you have no partner enterprises or linked enterprises within the meaning of that Recommendation. A holding by a parent company or a shared shareholder can break that condition, and that is a structural question you do not want to raise in the last week before an assessment. Second the reach of the simplification: which elements exactly may be lighter is not in the Regulation but in guidelines the Commission develops under this article. We make no claim here about which elements those are or whether those guidelines already exist; until they do, you build the Article 17 system as it stands and keep a note of which parts you would later want to simplify.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 17(1); Article 62(2); 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":"First test whether you fall within scope and record that test: are you a microenterprise within the meaning of Recommendation 2003/361/EC, and do you genuinely have no partner enterprises or linked enterprises within the meaning of that Recommendation? Put that second question to whoever knows the shareholding structure rather than to the product team, and repeat the test at every investment round or acquisition. Then build the Article 17 quality management system in full, and mark in your own documentation which elements you would want to simplify once the Commission guidelines on that exist; that way you do not start over when that text appears. Next, make an explicit list of the nine articles paragraph 2 names and set out per article who in your organisation produces the corresponding item and where it sits; that is the same list a buyer asks for and a market surveillance authority walks through. Put no sentence in quotations or contracts suggesting that your size releases you from a requirement. Finally, check whether Article 62 gives you something Article 63 does not, such as the reduced conformity assessment fee or priority access to a sandbox; those two tracks run separately and you can use both.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 17(1); Article 62(2); 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":"Determine and bound the simplification of your quality management system","summary":"Test whether you are a microenterprise with no partner or linked enterprises, build the Article 17 system, mark which elements you would want to simplify once the Commission guidelines exist, and keep the nine articles of Article 63(2) expressly outside that simplification."}],"evidence":[{"label":"File on microenterprise status","summary":"The record of the test against Recommendation 2003/361/EC with the date, the evidence that there are no partner enterprises or linked enterprises, and the list of the elements of the quality management system for which you want to invoke a simplification once the Commission guidelines exist.","url":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/ai-act/artikel/63"}],"guidance":[],"examples":[],"standards":[],"definitions":[],"answer_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-63-ai-act","follow_up_questions":[],"disclaimer":"General interpretation, not legal advice. The official source remains authoritative.","methodology":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/methodologie"}