The EU AI Act's AI Office gains full enforcement powers over general-purpose AI model providers on 2 August 2026, now 3.5 months away. The fine ceiling is €15m or 3% of global annual turnover, whichever is higher1. For OpenAI, a single enforcement action could exceed €500m.
Companies that placed general-purpose AI models on the EU market after August 2025 must already comply with the GPAI Code of Practice. Models placed before that date have until August 2027. The AI Office has stated it will adopt a "collaborative, risk-based" approach initially, which likely means formal enforcement actions will not land before 2027. But the legal authority will exist from August, and the fine ceilings are large enough to change corporate behaviour even without an action being filed.
The enforcement framework creates an asymmetry that benefits European AI companies. Mistral and Aleph Alpha have been engaging with the AI Office since the regulation was drafted and have shaped their models around its requirements. US providers face a compliance burden designed around European values and regulatory traditions that do not map neatly onto their existing governance structures. The practical question is whether the AI Office has the technical capacity to assess general-purpose model compliance at the level of detail the regulation demands. The office is still hiring specialist staff.
