Legislative Monitoring – Europe: August 2026

Brussels has postponed the AI Act, but supervision and sanctions took effect on August 2

"The AI Act has been postponed" is this year's most expensive misconception. The obligations for high-risk systems have been postponed.

What has been postponed for you. Recruitment, employee evaluation, credit scoring, critical infrastructure – these systems must be compliant by December 2, 2027. Artificial intelligence embedded in regulated products by August 2, 2028.

What has been in effect for you since August 2, 2026: Chatbots and telephone voice lines must inform the user that they are not interacting with a human, unless it is obvious. Selected synthetic and manipulated outputs, including deepfake content, must be labeled. The scope differs depending on whether you are supplying the system or just using it; an exception applies, for example, to tools that only assist with routine edits and do not substantially alter the input data. On the same date, national supervisory authorities and the sanctions regime came into effect – with fines of up to EUR 35 million or 7% of global turnover for prohibited practices. Systems you placed on the market before August 2 must be labeled in a machine-readable format by December 2, 2026.

The postponement was introduced by the Digital Omnibus on AI, i.e., Regulation (EU) 2026/1744. It was published on July 24, became effective on July 27, and amends the AI Act.

What to do now: Review the list of deployed tools. For customer chatbots and voice lines, add a disclosure that it is artificial intelligence. For generated marketing content, determine your role and set up labeling accordingly. If you use artificial intelligence in recruitment, you have until December 2027 – but build the documentation and human review processes now, as you won't be able to provide them retroactively.

The European Union is rewriting your packaging rules from August 12 and green claims from September

As of August 12, the new European regulation on packaging applies directly in all member states. Without national transposition. Without a general exemption for small and micro-enterprises. What matters is your role in placing the goods on the market – manufacturer, importer, distributor, or online platform.

What affects you immediately: restrictions on PFAS in food contact packaging, heavy metal limits, and the obligation to have technical documentation, a conformity assessment, and an EU declaration of conformity. Further waves will come between 2027 and 2030 – a digital identifier for extended producer responsibility from February 12, 2027, labeling for separate collection from August 12, 2028, and recyclability and empty space limits from January 1, 2030.

The trap between August and February: Member states have until February 12, 2027, to establish national penalties. However, this does not mean your shipment will get through – market surveillance can stop or block non-compliant goods at the border now using general powers. The German Minister for the Environment pushed for a postponement to January 2027 in June; as of the publication date, this had not been approved.

From September 27, member states will begin applying the rules adopted to transpose Directive (EU) 2024/825. There is no transition period for the affected claims. This amends regulations that are already part of national law – on unfair commercial practices and consumer rights.

What will end: general environmental claims without proof, such as "eco-friendly," "nature-friendly," or "green." Claims of climate neutrality based on emission offsets. Proprietary and self-certified eco-labels. You may only use a sustainability label if its compliance is verified by an independent third party – and you are responsible for it, even if someone else issued it. The Commission has issued an explanatory FAQ on this, updated in May 2026; it is not binding, but authorities and courts use it as a basis.

What to do now. Review your packaging, labels, e-shop, and catalogs and pull out every sustainability claim. For each claim, document what it specifically refers to and what evidence supports it. Remove anything you cannot substantiate by the end of September. First, check for phrases like "carbon neutral" – these are the first to go.

For parcels under EUR 150, you will now pay customs duty to the EU, and from November you will need a product identifier

As of July 1, the customs duty exemption for consignments up to EUR 150 has ended. Temporarily, a flat rate of EUR 3 is payable instead, until July 1, 2028. After that, standard customs duties based on the type of goods will apply.

Two things where overviews are most often mistaken. The flat rate applies to all distance sales consignments up to EUR 150, regardless of the VAT scheme you use – IOSS, special scheme, or standard VAT. Goods from preferential trade agreements are exempt if VAT is not collected via IOSS and the goods are declared under the H1 procedure. And the duty is calculated per item based on its tariff classification, not per consignment or per piece: five T-shirts in one consignment is EUR 3, one T-shirt and one watch is EUR 6. It is paid by the declarant, i.e., the seller or importer.

A new date for your calendar. From November 1, 2026, product identifiers (PIDs) are mandatory. You can provide them voluntarily from July. Customs authorities are to use them to track and block dangerous goods.

In addition to customs duties, an EU handling fee is being prepared to cover the costs of customs processing. According to the Commission, as of the publication date, this is a proposal with an expected application in autumn 2026; the amount and date have not been set. It is not a customs duty, and you cannot incorporate it into your price list yet.

What to do now. Pull up your orders under EUR 150 from third countries over the last year and recalculate your margin with the duty per item, not per consignment. Check that you have the tariff classification, declaration of origin, and EORI from your suppliers. Verify that your delivery terms specify who pays the customs duty. By November 1, arrange with your logistics partner who will provide the product identifiers and in what format.

In Slovakia, from August 17, you cannot transfer a share without a notary or an attorney

From August 17, Slovakia is replacing its twenty-year-old Act on the Commercial Register with a new one – Act No. 29/2026 Coll. It was originally supposed to take effect in March, but the effective date was postponed.

The most expensive change is the form of documents. Where an officially certified signature was previously sufficient, you will now need a notarial deed or a contract authorized by an attorney for specified documents. Specifically, for the founding document when establishing any legal form of company, for a share transfer agreement, for a decision to increase or decrease registered capital if the ratio of shares changes, for amendments to the articles of association and bylaws, and for an approved project of a cross-border transformation or change of legal form. The qualified form does not automatically apply to other registered changes – for these, the requirements must be verified according to the type of entry.

Three things that will change your transaction timetable. The deadline for registering a cross-border transformation is shortened from 21 days to 5 business days. You can only be represented for registration by an attorney, a notary, or your own employee – previous intermediaries are eliminated, but you can still file the application yourself. And the prohibition on chaining single-member companies and the limit of three single-member LLCs per natural person are abolished, which in turn opens up holding structures.

Sanctions are aimed directly at statutory representatives. The fine that the registration court can impose on a managing director or board member for failing to register required data or file documents in the collection of deeds increases from EUR 3,310 to EUR 4,000. It can be imposed repeatedly until you comply with the obligation.

Also still in effect: a notary can now also register joint-stock companies, not just LLCs, but cannot register based on documents they prepared themselves, nor register a transformation. You can reserve a business name for 60 days for EUR 50. Attorneys must file authorized documents in the Central Register of Authorizations on the same day, including real estate transfer agreements. Data published online in the Commercial Register are legally binding. Court fees remain unchanged – EUR 550 for a joint-stock company, EUR 220 for an LLC.

What to do now. If you have a share transfer underway for a Slovak subsidiary, try to complete the registration by August 16 – the new rules do not apply to changes already registered. For transactions where the law introduces a qualified form, add an appointment with a notary or attorney to the timetable and increase the estimate of transaction costs. For other registrations, have it verified which form actually applies to them. For cross-border transformations, recalculate the schedule for the five-day deadline. If you have a company with no planned changes, you don't need to do anything – the founding documents do not need to be rewritten.

In France, from September 1, you will not receive an invoice outside of an approved platform

In three weeks, you must be able to receive an electronic invoice. The obligation applies to every business established in France that falls within the scope of the reform – regardless of size, including micro-enterprises, and with no transition period. On the same date, large enterprises and businesses with 250 to 4,999 employees will also begin issuing invoices and transmitting transaction and payment data to the tax authority. Small and medium-sized enterprises have had their issuance deadline postponed to September 1, 2027. No further postponement had been announced as of the publication date.

The invoice must pass through an approved platform in one of three formats – Factur-X, UBL, or CII. The free public portal, which was originally planned, has been abandoned for B2B exchange and now serves only as a recipient directory and data concentrator. Invoices to the state and public entities continue to go through Chorus Pro.

Establishment is the deciding factor, not just the VAT ID. Do you have a permanent establishment or subsidiary in France? E-invoicing applies to you in full. Do you only have a French VAT ID without a permanent establishment? You are exempt from e-invoicing, but not from e-reporting – and you still need a contract with an approved platform. E-reporting for businesses not established in France begins on September 1, 2027.

What to do now. By August 31, sign a contract with an approved platform and test the receipt of at least one invoice from a real supplier. Check the new mandatory data on the invoice in your ERP. Set up a process for rejected invoices. Platform selection and integration is not a one-week affair – anyone starting in the second half of August will miss the deadline. And beware of the opposite extreme: the French tax administration warns that you should not refuse to process or pay an invoice just because it is not electronic, if the supplier is not yet required to issue them.

Germany has assigned supervision of artificial intelligence to the Bundesnetzagentur

Are you handling AI compliance for a German subsidiary? As of the end of July, you have a clear point of contact. The national implementing act for the AI Act came into force in Germany on July 29, and the Bundesnetzagentur has been entrusted with the central coordinating role. So you know who to communicate with and where to direct notifications and inquiries.

However, nothing has improved regarding pay transparency. Germany missed the transposition deadline for the European directive, which expired on June 7, and as of the publication date, it has not even published a reference draft of the law. A finalized regulation is realistically not expected until 2027. The existing Entgelttransparenzgesetz from 2017 remains in effect unchanged.

Nevertheless, waiting for the law is not advisable, for two reasons. After the deadline has passed without action, the direct effect of those provisions of the directive that are sufficiently precise and unconditional may be relevant for the public sector; whether a particular publicly owned enterprise is an emanation of the state is assessed according to EU criteria. And the Bundesarbeitsgericht (Federal Labour Court) already confirmed pair comparison in October 2025 – a single better-paid colleague in a comparable position establishes a presumption of wage discrimination. The standard that the directive is only now codifying is therefore already in effect in Germany today.

What to do now. Revise the pay structures and job advertisements for your German subsidiary, regardless of the missing law. The first report under the directive will be based on data for 2026 – that is, the data you are collecting now. Add a salary range to job advertisements and remove questions about previous salary from the recruitment process. If you have a publicly owned customer in Germany, expect them to pass the requirements on to you as a supplier.

The Netherlands will introduce a presumption of employment for low-paid contractors from the end of the year

You have until New Year's Eve. Not to do nothing. From December 31, 2026, the Netherlands is introducing a rebuttable presumption of an employment relationship for low hourly rates. The law was published in the Staatsblad (Official Gazette) at the end of June, and the effective date was set by decree in July. The government abandoned the broader reform of assessing employment relationships in March, but this part remained.

The base amount in the law is EUR 36 per hour, with indexation linked to the minimum wage. However, for the initial application, the applicable amount will be set by ministerial decree, and the Eerste Kamer (Senate) is working with a threshold below EUR 38 as of the decisive date of January 1, 2026. Therefore, you should take the exact amount from the ministerial decree, not from tables in advisory overviews.

This is not an automatic reclassification. A low rate establishes a presumption that the worker can invoke. Only then must you prove that it is not an employment relationship. If you fail to do so, labor law consequences will follow, including sick pay and protection against dismissal. The threshold is not a ceiling – even above it, it may still be a disguised employment relationship. The presumption does not apply to a natural person who is not acting in the course of a business.

However, something else is riskier until the end of the year. The moratorium on enforcement ended on January 1, 2025, and the Dutch tax administration is now actively assessing the true nature of collaborations. In case of reclassification, there is a risk of back payment of withholding tax and social security contributions retroactively to January 1, 2025, at the earliest, with interest. The authority does not accept model agreements. And if you are a foreign client without a Dutch entity, you also have to deal with the status of a paying agent and the risk of creating a permanent establishment.

What to do now. Pull up a list of your Dutch contractors with rates below EUR 40 per hour. For each one, assess how the collaboration actually works – who assigns the work, who determines the time and place, who bears the risk. The practice is what matters, not the text of the contract. For high-risk relationships, restructure the model by December 31, or switch to payroll or EOR. For each contractor, set up a demonstrable record of their independence.

The Polish labor inspectorate can reclassify your B2B contractors as employees, and the Constitutional Tribunal has not stopped it

The reform is in effect, and waiting for a verdict does not protect you. The President signed the law in April and simultaneously sent it to the Constitutional Tribunal for subsequent review. However, this does not have a suspensive effect – the reform came into force on July 8 and is being applied. Only a decision by the Tribunal on its unconstitutionality can change this.

A district labor inspector can, by administrative decision, determine that an employment relationship exists, thereby reclassifying a civil law contract, including B2B. Without a lawsuit. The procedure is two-tiered – first an order to rectify the shortcomings, then the decision. You can appeal to the labor court within 30 days. The new regulation also applies to contracts concluded earlier; proceedings initiated and not concluded before July 8 will be completed under the old rules. One piece of good news: a reclassification decision does not have retroactive effect; the consequences arise only after it is issued.

A misconception has spread in the market regarding invoicing that could needlessly alarm you. The KSeF system is mandatory for issuing invoices from February 1 for taxpayers with a turnover of over PLN 200 million and from April 1 for others; everyone must be able to receive them from February 1. But an invoice issued outside KSeF in violation of the supplier's obligation does not in itself deprive you of the right to a VAT deduction. This was confirmed by an individual interpretation from the Polish tax administration in January 2026 – what matters is whether the invoice documents a real taxable supply and contains the statutory data. However, the Ministry of Finance is limiting this protective period until the end of 2026, so do not assume the same approach for 2027.

The hard deadline is January. Specific sanctions for violating KSeF obligations will take effect from January 1, 2027, up to 100% of the VAT amount on the invoice. From the same date, you must include the KSeF identifier in the payment reference of bank transfers between active VAT payers. Some advisory sources indicated an earlier date for payments in the split payment mechanism – so confirm the format and deadline directly with your Polish bank before setting up payment templates.

What to do now. For your Polish contractors, review who directs their work, who determines the time and place, and who bears the risk. These are the criteria the inspectorate looks at – and older contracts are not protected. By the end of the year, complete the KSeF integration, including a scenario for system unavailability, and do not assume that access to VAT deductions will remain the same after January.

Hungary wants receipt data within three days from September 1

Do you issue receipts in Hungary manually from a pad or from your own software? You have three weeks. From September 1, you must transmit receipt data to the Hungarian tax authority within 3 calendar days of issuance. Those already using a cash register connected to the tax authority or an e-cash register automatically comply with the obligation and need to do nothing.

Two things are often confused in communications. This is not a general e-invoicing obligation, but a reporting of receipt data. And not every receipt is reported separately – according to more recent interpretations, it is aggregated daily data. The new feature is a uniform three-day deadline regardless of the VAT amount; previously, it was 4 days for receipts with VAT up to HUF 500,000 and 1 day above this threshold.

However, another date is more important for transaction preparation. The special Hungarian foreign investment screening regime is only valid until December 31, 2026. The new European regulation will not be applicable until January 17, 2028. There is a gap between these dates – for acquisitions planned for 2027, it is necessary to monitor whether and how the national regime will be extended.

What to do now. Find out how receipts are actually generated at your Hungarian establishment – pad, own software, or connected cash register. Only address the connection for the first two, and do so by September 1. If you are planning an acquisition of a Hungarian target with a signing in 2027, include a question in the due diligence about which approval regime the transaction will fall under.

In Romania, the reduced VAT rate for housing has ended, and developers' calculations are changing

A deadline that has just passed. The reduced VAT rate of 9% for specified transactions in social housing was only valid until July 31, 2026. The standard rate has been 21% since August 2025, and the reduced rates are unified at 11%. Do you have residential projects under construction with pricing based on nine percent? Recalculate your figures now, not at the next sale.

A shorter deadline applies to invoicing – in the Romanian e-invoice system, you send the invoice within 5 business days, previously it was 5 calendar days. The obligation also applies to invoices issued to foreign companies registered for Romanian VAT without a local establishment. If you are on the cash accounting scheme, the sending of notifications for the pre-filled return is suspended until September 30, 2026 – expect it to resume after this date.

A hidden deal-breaker for closing remains. The transfer of shares in a company with tax arrears is only effective against the tax authority if you notify it within 15 days and provide a guarantee for the arrears. The dividend tax has been 16% for residents and non-residents since January 2026; for dividends distributed based on interim financial statements for 2025, it remains at 10% without subsequent recalculation.

What to do now. Recalculate the price calculations for your Romanian residential projects and check which units under construction still fell under the 9% rate. For the acquisition of a Romanian target, request a certificate of no tax arrears before signing and incorporate the fifteen-day notification into the closing conditions. Set up a check in your ERP for the five-day deadline for sending invoices.

In Spain, VeriFactu has been postponed to 2027, but technical requirements are already in effect

A common misconception needs to be corrected here. VeriFactu is not mandatory in Spain in August 2026. The government postponed the deadlines in December 2025 by one year: corporate income taxpayers must have their invoicing systems adapted before January 1, 2027, and other affected persons – mainly self-employed individuals – before July 1, 2027. This was already the second postponement.

But the postponement does not apply to everything. The Spanish regulation that introduces the standard is in effect and sets requirements for invoicing systems: immutability and traceability of records, their cryptographic chaining, secure event logging, exclusion of double use, and a QR code. The deadline for you as a user has been moved, not the technical standard. Software suppliers therefore already have obligations today.

The most common mistake in preparation is confusing two regimes. VeriFactu is not the same as mandatory B2B electronic invoicing under the Crea y Crece law. That is still tied to an implementing regulation, and expert overviews estimate its deployment for 2027; a binding deadline had not been confirmed as of the publication date. Anyone who combines both regimes into one project will either invest sooner than necessary or miss what comes first.

What to do now. Request written confirmation of compliance and the date by which the system will be ready to send records from the supplier of your invoicing software for your Spanish subsidiary. Enter January 1 or July 1 into your 2027 plan, depending on which category you fall into. Verify whether you are under the special immediate data supply regime or the Basque or Navarrese systems – different rules apply there.

Italy has given you until June 2027, but data collection must be running this year

Italy is one of the four out of 27 states that met the transposition deadline for the Pay Transparency Directive. The new regulation has been effective since June 7, 2026. It applies to public and private employers, fixed-term and permanent contracts, part-time work and managerial positions, and defines remuneration broadly to include variable and in-kind components.

Intervene in recruitment immediately – this part is already in effect today. It is forbidden to ask about a candidate's previous remuneration. An information obligation arises before the employment relationship begins, and pay secrecy clauses are prohibited. An employee can make a written request for the average remuneration levels broken down by gender for comparable categories – not the specific data of colleagues.

Periodic reporting on the gender pay gap applies to employers with at least 100 employees and is staggered: by June 7, 2027, for employers with 150 or more employees, and by June 7, 2031, for those with 100 to 149. An unjustified gap of at least 5% in any category that you do not remedy within six months triggers a mandatory joint pay assessment with employee representatives. The Ministry of Labour may issue guidance by the end of 2026.

What to do now. The first report in June 2027 will be calculated from 2026 data – so you must have the categories of comparable positions and gender breakdown set up in your HR system this year. Remove questions about previous salary from your Italian recruitment templates and pay secrecy clauses from employment contracts.

Deadlines for companies to track until November 10, 2026

• August 12, 2026 – entire EU: new regulation on packaging. Affects everyone who places packaging or packaged goods on the EU market.

• August 17, 2026 – Slovakia: new Act on the Commercial Register. Affects anyone who will register a change in a Slovak company after this date.

• September 1, 2026 – France: obligation to receive electronic invoices for businesses established in France, obligation to issue for large and medium-sized enterprises.

• September 1, 2026 – Hungary: reporting of receipt data within 3 days for entities without a connected cash register.

• September 27, 2026 – entire EU: new rules for sustainability claims. Affects everyone who uses such a claim in the EU.

• September 30, 2026 – Romania: end of suspension of notifications for the pre-filled VAT return under the cash accounting scheme.

• November 1, 2026 – entire EU: product identifiers become mandatory for distance sales imports.

Beyond the ninety-day horizon, but requiring preparation this year: December 2, 2026, for labeling of artificial intelligence systems placed on the market before August 2; December 31, 2026, for the Dutch presumption of employment and the end of the Hungarian investment screening regime; January 1, 2027, for Spanish VeriFactu for corporations and Polish sanctions in KSeF; February 12, 2027, for national sanctions for the packaging regulation; June 7, 2027, for the first Italian pay report; July 1, 2027, for Spanish VeriFactu for others.

Three things that cannot be postponed

First, complete Slovak share transfers by August 16, or rewrite the timetable. The qualified form means an appointment with a notary or attorney for every transfer of a business share and for other specified acts. And for cross-border transformations, the registration deadline is shortened from 21 days to 5 business days. This is not an administrative detail, but an item on the closing checklist.

Second, a postponement is not a pardon – but it's not a bogeyman either. For the AI Act, only the obligations for high-risk systems were postponed; transparency rules, supervision, and sanctions took effect on August 2. For packaging, national penalties are missing until February 2027, but surveillance can stop your goods immediately. Conversely, in Spain, VeriFactu is not until 2027, and in Poland, an invoice outside KSeF does not in itself cancel the VAT deduction. Anyone who doesn't read this precisely will either invest sooner than necessary or create a risk that doesn't exist.

Third, where there is no national law, there is still risk. Four out of 27 states met the transposition deadline for the Pay Transparency Directive. Germany doesn't even have a draft – but the Bundesarbeitsgericht has already confirmed pair comparison, and the direct effect of sufficiently precise provisions of the directive may apply to the public sector. A uniform group-wide pay policy will not cover this reality. You need a country-by-country map.

That is why we regularly prepare the Europe Legislative Monitoring for you. Without unnecessary legal theory. With an emphasis on what the change means for your business and what needs to be done.

The lawyers at ARROWS law firm monitor developments in the member states continuously, and thanks to the ARROWS International network, they verify local regulations directly with partners in the given jurisdiction – from the form of Slovak transaction documents to the French invoicing platform to the assessment of Dutch contractors. For the maximum security of our clients, we are insured for professional liability with a limit of CZK 350,000,000. Do you need a map of obligations and deadlines for the specific countries where you have a subsidiary, employees, or suppliers? Write to consultation@arws.cz.