08/08/2026
China’s had mandatory AI labeling since 2025. The EU just caught up. The US is phasing it in. Canada is still asking the internet what it thinks.
Article 50 of the EU AI Act’s transparency rules took effect that day — mandatory labelling for AI-generated images, video and text, fines up to €15M or 3% of global revenue. Doesn’t matter where your studio sits. If your output reaches the EU market, you’re in scope.
And it’s not just the EU. China’s required AI labelling since September 2025. California’s rules phase in from the same date. Canada’s still consulting. If your brand ships into more than one of these markets, “wait and see” isn’t a strategy.
This dress, these earrings, this ring, this bag — not real product. They’re what happens when you take a compliance icon most people will never read the fine print on and build a wardrobe around it instead.
Treat AI disclosure like a tech pack: documented, not improvised. Tools like Adobe Firefly and Google Imagen already embed provenance data by default — use it, and keep a record of what made what.
If your studio can’t tell you which of your last ten AI posts need a label, you don’t have a pipeline. You have an experiment that got lucky.
*Concept visuals only — AI-generated, not affiliated with C2PA or the Content Authenticity Initiative.