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EU AI Act Article 99: the penalty tiers

Article 99 sets out the penalty framework Member States apply for infringements. Non-compliance with the prohibited practices in Article 5 carries administrative fines of up to EUR 35,000,000 or, for companies, up to 7% of total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher. Non-compliance with most other obligations under the Regulation — including provider, importer, distributor, and deployer duties — carries fines of up to EUR 15,000,000 or 3% of turnover. Supplying incorrect, incomplete, or misleading information to notified bodies or national authorities carries fines of up to EUR 7,500,000 or 1% of turnover. For SMEs, including startups, each tier applies whichever amount is lower. Separate rules under Article 101 govern fines the Commission can impose directly on providers of general-purpose AI models.

Who it applies to

Any operator under the Regulation — provider, deployer, importer, distributor, or authorised representative — established or operating in the EU market, regardless of where the AI system itself is developed.

What evidence this implies

In an enforcement inquiry, the fine tier that applies often turns on what can be shown: whether an obligation was met, when it was met, and whether the operator acted diligently once an issue surfaced. Article 99(6) explicitly lists the need to consider factors like the nature and duration of the infringement and the degree of cooperation, which in practice means a documented, verifiable record of what happened works in the operator's favor.

Gaps to state honestly

No log, ledger, or report changes what conduct is prohibited or what obligations apply — it only affects what you can prove happened. Evidence of good process does not excuse an actual violation of Article 5, and Vetro does not calculate what a fine would be in a specific case.

How Vetro helps

Vetro's hash-chained, ed25519-signed ledger gives you a verifiable record of model calls, tool calls, and policy decisions, so that if an inquiry ever asks what your system did and when, you have something more durable than a database export. Vetro Attest verifies a ledger or OTLP GenAI trace for free and, for 49 USD, issues a counter-signed report mapping that evidence to the EU AI Act. This is technical evidence, not legal advice.

Get a rough sense of exposure with the penalty calculator, or check whether your system is high-risk with the high-risk classifier.

See a sample ledger verified in one click, check your own logs free or get the countersigned EU AI Act report.