Direct answer
What does Articles 28 to 39 of the AI Act say about notifying authorities and notified bodies?
Your question is about articles 28 to 39: notifying authorities and notified bodies. That obligation applies today. Whether your system actually falls under it depends on conditions you assess yourself.
You determine this yourself
- Practically engaged as soon as a notified body comes into the picture for your system. Within Annex III that is, under Article 43(1), only for the biometrics of point 1, and then only along the Annex VII procedure. Within Annex I, Section A, it happens through the sectoral conformity assessment of Article 43(3). For the systems of points 2 to 8 of Annex III, which follow the internal control of Annex VI, no notified body is involved and this Section has no direct bearing on you. The Section itself has applied since 2 August 2025 and therefore well before the underlying high-risk obligations bite: the notification chain has to exist before there is anything to assess.
- Article 33(3) makes the agreement of the provider a condition for subcontracting: activities may be subcontracted or carried out by a subsidiary only with the agreement of the provider. That is a right you can exercise only if you ask about it, because the provision does not prescribe any active notice to you.
- Article 39 rules out a free choice of a foreign body. Only conformity assessment bodies established under the law of a third country with which the Union has concluded an agreement may be authorised to carry out the activities of notified bodies, and then only where they meet the requirements laid down in Article 31 or ensure an equivalent level of compliance.
- The presumption in Article 32 is narrow. A conformity assessment body is presumed to comply with the requirements of Article 31 in so far as the applicable harmonised standards cover those requirements and their references have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Without that publication the presumption does not operate, and it never reaches further than what the standard covers.
First step: Check the standing and independence of your notified body.
Articles 28 to 39 of the AI Act covers notifying authorities and notified bodies. Section 4 of Chapter III governs who may carry out your conformity assessment and on what conditions that power continues to exist. Each Member State designates a notifying authority that assesses, designates, notifies and monitors conformity assessment bodies. A notified body is established under the national law of a Member State, has legal personality, and is independent of the provider, of any other operator with an economic interest and of the provider competitors; consultancy services in particular are ruled out. Subcontracting to a subcontractor or a subsidiary is allowed only with the agreement of the provider, and the body then retains full responsibility. In its work it avoids unnecessary burdens for providers and minimises administrative burdens and compliance costs for micro- and small enterprises, without giving up the required degree of rigour. Article 36 distinguishes the cases. Where it ceases its activities, the certificates remain valid under paragraph 3 for at most nine months, provided another notified body assumes responsibility in writing. Where its designation is suspended, restricted or withdrawn, it informs the providers concerned within ten days under paragraph 5; paragraph 8 sets continuity conditions there without that general nine-month limit, and paragraph 9 gives certificates a nine-month validity on withdrawal, with a conditional extension in periods of three months up to twelve months at most. A body from a third country can carry out these activities only where the Union has concluded an agreement with that country. This provision concerns the provider of an AI system. This provision applies today.
This applies now
Your first actions
- Check the standing and independence of your notified body. At the moment of choice and periodically thereafter, verify whether the body appears in the Commission public list, for which activities and system types it is notified, whether its designation has been restricted or suspended, and whether the independence of Article 31(4) and (5) holds; also ask which tasks are subcontracted and give your agreement under Article 33(3) in writing.
Record this
General interpretation, not legal advice. Checked against Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 and the Digital Omnibus (EU) 2026/1744; the official source remains authoritative.
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