{"answer_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:answer:artikel-95-ai-act","canonical_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-95-ai-act","query":"What does Article 95 of the AI Act say about codes of conduct for voluntary application of specific requirements?","lang":"en","view":"full","mode":"obligation","question":"What does Article 95 of the AI Act say about codes of conduct for voluntary application of specific requirements?","situation":"Article 95 of the AI Act covers codes of conduct for voluntary application of specific requirements. The AI Office and the Member States encourage and facilitate the drawing up of codes of conduct, including related governance mechanisms, intended to foster the voluntary application to AI systems other than high-risk AI systems of some or all of the requirements set out in Chapter III, Section 2, taking into account the available technical solutions and industry best practices. They also facilitate codes on the voluntary application of specific requirements to all AI systems, on the basis of clear objectives and key performance indicators, with elements such as the Union ethical guidelines for trustworthy AI, assessing and minimising the impact on environmental sustainability, promoting AI literacy, facilitating an inclusive and diverse design, and assessing and preventing the negative impact on vulnerable persons. Codes may be drawn up by individual providers or deployers or by organisations representing them, and in encouraging and facilitating them the specific interests and needs of SMEs, including start-ups, and of small mid-cap enterprises are taken into account; that last group was added by Article 1, point (35), of Regulation (EU) 2026/1744. This article imposes no duty on the organisation and replaces no obligation. 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-95-voluntary-codes-of-conduct","label":"Article 95: codes of conduct for voluntary application of specific requirements","summary":"The AI Office and the Member States encourage and facilitate the drawing up of codes of conduct, including related governance mechanisms, intended to foster the voluntary application to AI systems other than high-risk AI systems of some or all of the requirements set out in Chapter III, Section 2, taking into account the available technical solutions and industry best practices. They also facilitate codes on the voluntary application of specific requirements to all AI systems, on the basis of clear objectives and key performance indicators, with elements such as the Union ethical guidelines for trustworthy AI, assessing and minimising the impact on environmental sustainability, promoting AI literacy, facilitating an inclusive and diverse design, and assessing and preventing the negative impact on vulnerable persons. Codes may be drawn up by individual providers or deployers or by organisations representing them, and in encouraging and facilitating them the specific interests and needs of SMEs, including start-ups, and of small mid-cap enterprises are taken into account; that last group was added by Article 1, point (35), of Regulation (EU) 2026/1744. This article imposes no duty on the organisation and replaces no obligation.","legal_status":"applicable","deadline_at":null,"high_risk_regime_from":null,"human_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/verplichtingen/article-95-voluntary-codes-of-conduct","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 AI Office and the Member States shall encourage and facilitate the drawing up of codes of conduct, including related governance mechanisms, intended to foster the voluntary application to AI systems, other than high-risk AI systems, of some or all of the requirements set out in Chapter III, Section 2 taking into account the available technical solutions and industry best practices allowing for the application of such requirements. Paragraph 2 provides: the AI Office and the Member States shall facilitate the drawing up of codes of conduct concerning the voluntary application, including by deployers, of specific requirements to all AI systems, on the basis of clear objectives and key performance indicators to measure the achievement of those objectives, including elements such as, but not limited to: (a) applicable elements provided for in Union ethical guidelines for trustworthy AI; (b) assessing and minimising the impact of AI systems on environmental sustainability, including as regards energy-efficient programming and techniques for the efficient design, training and use of AI; (c) promoting AI literacy, in particular that of persons dealing with the development, operation and use of AI; (d) facilitating an inclusive and diverse design of AI systems, including through the establishment of inclusive and diverse development teams and the promotion of stakeholders participation in that process; (e) assessing and preventing the negative impact of AI systems on vulnerable persons or groups of vulnerable persons, including as regards accessibility for persons with a disability, as well as on gender equality.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 95(1) to (4)","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":"Read this article first for what it is not. It imposes no duty on your organisation: paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 address the AI Office and the Member States, and paragraph 3 only says who may draw a code up. And paragraph 1 is expressly about AI systems other than high-risk AI systems. That is the core of the provision and at the same time the source of the biggest misunderstanding in practice. The common thought is that a code of conduct can replace a mandatory requirement, or that signing one produces a form of compliance a regulator can hold against you or count in your favour. Neither is in the text. The voluntariness in Article 95 concerns requirements that precisely do not apply to your system: Chapter III, Section 2, contains the requirements for high-risk AI systems, and Article 95 invites you to apply some or all of those requirements to a system that is not high-risk. The reverse, a lighter reading of a requirement that does apply, is not on offer in this article. Two limits go with that. Article 4 requires providers and deployers to take measures to ensure a sufficient level of AI literacy. Article 95(2), point (c), names promoting AI literacy as a possible element of a code of conduct. That is not a duplication: the first is the duty, the second is the superstructure. A code of conduct on AI literacy is therefore a fine addition and never a replacement of Article 4. The same holds for transparency: Article 50 imposes a number of transparency duties, and a code that says something about them leaves Article 50 untouched. Anyone suggesting in a tender document or annual report that a code covers one of those duties is making a claim the text does not support.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 4; Article 50; Chapter III, Section 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 make the separation visible in your own documentation: set out in two columns what you must do and what you do voluntarily, and make sure no line from the second column is used as cover for a line from the first. Then test every existing ethical code, AI policy document or supplier promise against that separation, because that is usually where the blending sits. If you are considering a code under Article 95, choose deliberately between the two routes: the paragraph 1 route for a system that is not high-risk, where you name which requirements of Chapter III, Section 2, you adopt and which you do not, or the paragraph 2 route for specific requirements across all your AI systems. In both cases give the code the form paragraph 2 describes: clear objectives and key performance indicators with which you measure the achievement, with a named owner and a moment of measurement. Then pick the elements that genuinely mean something to you rather than all five; environmental sustainability, AI literacy, inclusive and diverse design and the impact on vulnerable persons are separate topics with separate data. If you are an SME or a start-up, ask your national competent authority or the AI Office what support for drawing one up is available, because paragraph 4 requires your interests and needs to be taken into account. Finally, put no wording in quotations, tender responses or annual reports from which a reader could infer that participation in a code of conduct covers an obligation under the Regulation.","source_id":"praxikon:eu:ai-act:source:reg-eu-2024-1689","source_locator":"Article 4; Article 50; Chapter III, Section 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":"Scope a voluntary code of conduct and separate it from your duties","summary":"Choose the paragraph 1 or the paragraph 2 route, name which requirements you apply voluntarily and which you do not, give the code clear objectives and key performance indicators, and keep the voluntary commitments administratively separate from the obligations that continue to apply in full."}],"evidence":[{"label":"Register of voluntary commitments alongside the obligations","summary":"Per system and per commitment: which requirements you apply voluntarily, under which paragraph of Article 95, with which objectives and key performance indicators, who owns it, when it is measured, and which obligation under the Regulation continues to apply in full alongside it.","url":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/ai-act/artikel/95"}],"guidance":[],"examples":[],"standards":[],"definitions":[],"answer_page":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/antwoord/artikel-95-ai-act","follow_up_questions":[],"disclaimer":"General interpretation, not legal advice. The official source remains authoritative.","methodology":"https://www.praxikon.com/en/methodologie"}