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Praxikon
Article 5 of 1134%
Nederlands

Article 5: Prohibited AI practices

Praxikon tracks Article 5 (Prohibited AI practices) under the EU AI Act, citing the source for every statement.

EU Official:
ActiveIn force since 2 Feb 2025
Title II: Prohibited AI PracticesApplies from: 2 February 2025

Article 5 prohibits manipulative AI techniques, exploitation of vulnerabilities, social scoring by governments, real-time biometric identification in public spaces (with exceptions), and emotion recognition in the workplace and education.

Official text

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Source: EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689. Text reproduced verbatim.

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Official guidance on this article

5

What does this mean for you?

Provider+
As a provider, you may not place AI systems on the market that use manipulative techniques, exploit vulnerabilities, or apply social scoring. Review your AI portfolio for these prohibited applications before 2 February 2025.
Deployer+
As a deployer, you may not use prohibited AI systems. Verify that your suppliers confirm their systems do not fall under prohibited categories. Pay specific attention to emotion recognition in the workplace.
SME / Startup+
Even as a small business, the prohibitions apply in full. Most SMEs will not be affected, but check whether you use AI for customer segmentation or employee assessment — these may fall under the prohibitions.
Public Sector+
Public authorities may not deploy social scoring systems. Real-time biometric identification in public spaces is prohibited, except in strictly defined law enforcement exceptions.

Related recitals

Recital 29Primary

AI-enabled manipulative techniques can be used to persuade persons to engage in unwanted behaviours, or to deceive them by nudging them into decisions in a way that subverts and impairs their autonomy…

Recital 30Primary

Biometric categorisation systems that are based on natural persons’ biometric data, such as an individual person’s face or fingerprint, to deduce or infer an individuals’ political opinions, trade uni…

Recital 31Primary

AI systems providing social scoring of natural persons by public or private actors may lead to discriminatory outcomes and the exclusion of certain groups. They may violate the right to dignity and no…

Recital 32Primary

The use of AI systems for ‘real-time’ remote biometric identification of natural persons in publicly accessible spaces for the purpose of law enforcement is particularly intrusive to the rights and fr…

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Related tools

Penalty CalculatorAI Decision Tree

Related enforcement

  • •
    AI Act prohibited practices enter into force — no enforcement actions yetEuropean AI Office · Feb 2025↗
  • •
    CNIL fines Amazon €32 million for AI employee monitoringCNIL · Dec 2023↗
  • •
    Dutch DPA fines Clearview AI €30.5 millionAutoriteit Persoonsgegevens · Sept 2023↗
  • •
    Clearview AI fined €20 million by Italian DPAGarante per la protezione dei dati personali · May 2022↗
  • •
    Greek DPA fines Clearview AI €20 millionHellenic Data Protection Authority · May 2022↗

Related blog posts

Cross-references

Articles

Art. 96Art. 99

Recitals

2829303132333435

Annexes

Annex 2

Frequently asked questions

Which AI practices are prohibited under the AI Act?+
Article 5 prohibits manipulative AI techniques, exploitation of vulnerabilities, social scoring by governments, real-time biometric identification in public spaces (with exceptions), and emotion recognition in the workplace and education.
What are the penalties for prohibited AI practices?+
Violations of Article 5 can result in fines of up to €35 million or 7% of global annual turnover, whichever is higher.
Since when do the prohibited AI practices apply?+
The prohibitions in Article 5 have been in force since 2 February 2025.
Which AI applications have been prohibited since February 2025?+
Since 2 February 2025, the following are prohibited: manipulative and deceptive AI, exploitation of vulnerable groups, social scoring, predictive policing based on personality traits, untargeted scraping of facial images, emotion recognition in the workplace and education, and biometric categorisation based on sensitive characteristics.
Can I still use emotion recognition in my company?+
Emotion recognition in the workplace and education is prohibited under Article 5. Emotion recognition is allowed in other contexts, but is then classified as high-risk AI under Annex III and must comply with strict requirements.
Is social scoring by companies also prohibited or only by governments?+
The prohibition on social scoring applies to both public authorities and private organisations. Article 5 prohibits AI systems that assess or classify persons based on social behaviour or personality traits, if this leads to detrimental or unfavourable treatment that is unjustified.
How do I know if my AI system falls under prohibited practices?+
Check whether your AI system touches any of the eight prohibited categories in Article 5. Pay specific attention to manipulative techniques, exploitation of vulnerable groups, biometric applications and emotion recognition. When in doubt, a legal review is advisable, as violations carry the highest fine category (up to 7% turnover).
What is the difference between prohibited AI and high-risk AI?+
Prohibited AI (Article 5) may not be used in the EU at all — there is no way to be compliant. High-risk AI (Article 6) may be used, but only if strict requirements around risk management, transparency, data governance, human oversight and more are met.

What Article 5 requires in practice

Connections

What connects to Article 5 AI Act

Themes where this returns

The counterpart in the other law

GDPR interpretation that also applies here6 of 10