The European AI Act defines several categories of actors based on their role and responsibilities throughout the lifecycle of an AI system.
The main profiles include: provider, deployer, authorized representative, importer, and distributor. Collectively, these roles are referred to as operators.
The logic is straightforward: once your role is determined, the corresponding legal obligations follow.
Accurately identifying your role is therefore essential, as each status carries its own specific and binding compliance requirements.
You are considered a provider if:
- You develop or have an AI system developed and place it on the market or put it into service under your own name or trademark (whether free of charge or not);
Placing on the market is understood as the moment when the product is available to be sold or distributed, whether it is used immediately or not.
Putting into service is understood as the AI system entering into operation in a user environment.
- You market a high-risk AI system that is already placed on the market or put into service, but under your own name or brand;
- You make a substantial modification to a high-risk AI system already placed on the market or put into service such that it remains high-risk;
- You change the intended purpose of an AI System, including a general-purpose one, that has already been placed on the market or put into service in such a way that it becomes a high-risk AI system.
Warning: once an operator is classified as a provider, it must meet one of the following territoriality conditions, otherwise it is excluded from the scope of the Regulation:
- The provider is based in the EU and places on the market or puts into service AI systems or general-purpose models in the EU; or
- The provider is established outside the EU, but the output produced by the system is used in the EU.
You are considered a deployer if:
- You use an AI system in the context of a professional (or non-personal) activity, without being at the origin of its development or of its placing on the market.
Note: the deployer must meet one of the following territoriality conditions, otherwise it is excluded from the scope of the Regulation:
- It is established or located in the EU; or
- The outputs of the AI system are used in the EU.
You are considered an authorized representative if:
- You are established in the EU and have received a written mandate that you accept from a provider located outside the EU to perform regulatory obligations and procedures on their behalf.
You are considered an importer if:
- You are located in the EU and place on the market an AI system developed by an actor established in a third country or which bears the name or trademark of a natural or legal person established in a third country.
You are considered a distributor if:
- You make available on the EU market an AI system without being a provider or an importer.