AI Act Documents:

Article 77: Powers of authorities protecting fundamental rights and cooperation with market surveillance authorities

Comes into force 2 August 2026, according to Article 113
1. National public authorities or bodies which supervise or enforce the respect of obligations under Union law protecting fundamental rightsfundamental rightsIncludes human dignity, right to life, prohibition of torture, protection of personal datapersonal dataAny information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ('data subjectsubjectfor the purpose of real-world testing, means a natural person who participates in testing in real-world conditionsArticle 3(58)data subjectsubjectfor the purpose of real-world testing, means a natural person who participates in testing in real-world conditionsArticle 3(58)An identified or identifiable natural person to whom personal data relateGDPR Art. 4(1)'). Includes name, ID number, location data, online identifiers, or factors specific to physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identityGDPR Art. 4(1), freedom of expression, non-discrimination, equality between women and men, rights of the child, right to an effective remedy and fair trialCharter of Fundamental Rights Art. 1–54, including the right to non-discrimination, shall have the power to request and access any information or documentation created or maintained from the relevant market surveillance authoritymarket surveillance authorityAny national authority responsible for carrying out market surveillance on the territory of the Member State concernedRegulation (EU) 2019/1020 Art. 3(4) pursuant to this Regulation in accessible language and machine-readable format by electronic means where access to that information or documentation is necessary for effectively fulfilling their mandates within the limits of their jurisdiction. This Article is without prejudice to the competences, tasks, powers and independence of the relevant national public authorities or bodies under their mandates.
1a. SubjectSubjectfor the purpose of real-world testing, means a natural person who participates in testing in real-world conditionsArticle 3(58) to the conditions specified in this Article, the market surveillance authoritymarket surveillance authorityAny national authority responsible for carrying out market surveillance on the territory of the Member State concernedRegulation (EU) 2019/1020 Art. 3(4) shall grant the relevant public authority or body referred to in paragraph 1 access to such information or documentation, including by requesting such information or documentation from the providerprovidermeans a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body that develops an AI system or a general-purpose AI model or that has an AI system or a general-purpose AI model developed and places it on the market or puts the AI system into service under its own name or trademark, whether for payment or free of chargeArticle 3(3) or the deployerdeployermeans a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body using an AI system under its authority except where the AI system is used in the course of a personal non-professional activityArticle 3(4), where necessary and without undue delay.
1b. Market surveillance authorities and public authorities or bodies referred to in paragraph 1 shall cooperate closely and provide each other with the mutual assistance necessary to fulfil their respective mandates, with a view to ensuring the coherent application of this Regulation and Union law protecting fundamental rightsfundamental rightsIncludes human dignity, right to life, prohibition of torture, protection of personal datapersonal dataAny information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ('data subjectsubjectfor the purpose of real-world testing, means a natural person who participates in testing in real-world conditionsArticle 3(58)data subjectsubjectfor the purpose of real-world testing, means a natural person who participates in testing in real-world conditionsArticle 3(58)An identified or identifiable natural person to whom personal data relateGDPR Art. 4(1)'). Includes name, ID number, location data, online identifiers, or factors specific to physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identityGDPR Art. 4(1), freedom of expression, non-discrimination, equality between women and men, rights of the child, right to an effective remedy and fair trialCharter of Fundamental Rights Art. 1–54 and streamlining procedures, while respecting their respective competences, tasks, powers and independence. This shall include, in particular, exchange of information where necessary for the effective supervision or enforcement of this Regulation and the respective other Union legislation.
2. By 2 November 2024, each Member State shall identify the public authorities or bodies referred to in paragraph 1 and make a list of them publicly available. Member States shall notify the list to the Commission and to the other Member States, and shall keep the list up to date.
3. Where the documentation referred to in paragraph 1 is insufficient to ascertain whether an infringement of obligations under Union law protecting fundamental rightsfundamental rightsIncludes human dignity, right to life, prohibition of torture, protection of personal datapersonal dataAny information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ('data subjectsubjectfor the purpose of real-world testing, means a natural person who participates in testing in real-world conditionsArticle 3(58)data subjectsubjectfor the purpose of real-world testing, means a natural person who participates in testing in real-world conditionsArticle 3(58)An identified or identifiable natural person to whom personal data relateGDPR Art. 4(1)'). Includes name, ID number, location data, online identifiers, or factors specific to physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identityGDPR Art. 4(1), freedom of expression, non-discrimination, equality between women and men, rights of the child, right to an effective remedy and fair trialCharter of Fundamental Rights Art. 1–54 has occurred, the public authority or body referred to in paragraph 1 may make a reasoned request to the market surveillance authoritymarket surveillance authorityAny national authority responsible for carrying out market surveillance on the territory of the Member State concernedRegulation (EU) 2019/1020 Art. 3(4), to organise testing of the high-risk AI systemAI systemmeans a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment, and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environmentsArticle 3(1) through technical means. The market surveillance authoritymarket surveillance authorityAny national authority responsible for carrying out market surveillance on the territory of the Member State concernedRegulation (EU) 2019/1020 Art. 3(4) shall organise the testing with the close involvement of the requesting public authority or body within a reasonable time following the request.
4. Any information or documentation obtained by the national public authorities or bodies referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article pursuant to this Article shall be treated in accordance with the confidentiality obligations set out in Article 78.