EU AI Act Article 85 — right to lodge a complaint with a market surveillance authority

Ce qu'il fait

Complaints from 'any natural or legal person' with grounds to consider there has been an infringement of the AI Act. No standing requirement, no need to be personally harmed, no institutional affiliation required. Applies without prejudice to other administrative or judicial remedies.

Évaluation franche

Legally real and newly in force, but immature. The absence of designated authorities in most Member States means enforcement capacity lags the right. Parliamentary research flags 'uneven enforcement' as a structural risk of the decentralised model. Best used as a formal, citable act that creates a record and can be escalated or publicised — not as a fast route to action.

Comment déposer

Submit to the market surveillance authority of your Member State. The authority must take complaints into account under Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 and handle them under its established procedures. Practical problem: as of March 2026 only 8 of 27 Member States had notified a single point of contact, so identifying the correct national authority is genuinely difficult in most of the EU. Where you cannot identify one, use the Commission's AI Act complaints tool instead and ask for referral.

Format

No prescribed EU-wide format. In practice: identify the AI system, the provider/deployer, the specific AI Act provision you say is breached, the country where it occurred, and attach evidence.

Calendrier

Applicable from 2 August 2026; rolling thereafter.

Ce qui se passe ensuite

The authority considers the complaint as part of its market surveillance activities and may open an investigation. There is no guaranteed individual response or published outcome under Article 85 itself.

Ce qu'il accepte

Complaints from 'any natural or legal person' with grounds to consider there has been an infringement of the AI Act. No standing requirement, no need to be personally harmed, no institutional affiliation required. Applies without prejudice to other administrative or judicial remedies.

Ce qu'il n'accepte pas

Matters outside the AI Act. It is a complaint right, not a right to a remedy — the Act does not give the complainant a personal entitlement to redress, damages or a specific outcome.

Géré par

National market surveillance authorities of EU Member States; coordinated by the European AI Board and Commission AI Office