A Missed Opportunity to Enforce Meaningful Transparency Obligations under the EU AI Act

In July 2025, the European Commission released three documents intended to implement the transparency obligations for General-Purpose AI providers (GPAI) systems set out in the EU AI Act:

• A Code of Practice clarifying transparency and copyright-related obligations under the AI Act.
• Guidelines for GPAI providers on the scope and application of those obligations.
• A Transparency Template for training data disclosures, to be administered by the EU AI Office.

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Transparency is essential for rights holders to determine whether their works have been used by GPAI providers, so they can either license their content or exercise their right to opt out. This principle is explicitly recognised in the AI Act.

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However, the measures adopted fall far short of ensuring effective protection for Europe’s creative and media sectors:

• The Code of Practice is voluntary, lacks binding mechanisms, and provides no robust oversight or enforceable safeguards.
• The Transparency Template is insufficiently detailed, failing to give rights holders meaningful visibility over training datasets.
• The Guidelines unduly allow GPAI providers to limit their reporting and, in effect, cherry-pick their compliance. The Guidelines narrow the scope of obligations, including by proposing exemptions for models deemed “specialised” (such as image-focused systems like MidJourney or DALLE-E), even when such models have multi-modal functions or significant commercial deployment. These exclusions, which are not mandated by the AI Act, will create loopholes.

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Despite CEPIC’s extensive engagement in the consultation process, these documents do not reflect the concerns of rights holders of visual content and fail to strike a fair balance between the interests of all stakeholders.

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CEPIC President, Emily Shelley, said: “EU legislators had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure that generative AI can flourish alongside the creators who have inspired its very existence. Instead, they have removed what little teeth the AI Act had to enforce fairness and transparency in a new market.

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“Creators, rightsholders and our CEPIC members are disappointed and despairing. As valued participants in the consultations around the Code of Practice, the Guidelines, the Templates and the Act itself, CEPIC leadership is hopeful of opportunities to put this right for everyone.”

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CEPIC will continue to advocate for enforceable and effective transparency and licensing standards in upcoming regulatory initiatives. We urge the European Commission and EU co-legislators to take swift action to uphold the intent of the AI Act and protect European intellectual property by ensuring fair and workable rules for the emerging AI licensing market.

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(A legal assessment of the three documents is provided in the annex.)

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