Article 62 — Measures for providers and deployers that are SMEs, including start-ups (EU AI Act)

Article 62 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 — Measures for providers and deployers that are SMEs, including start-ups. Official text, practical interpretation, key obligations and compliance implications.

Official Text Summary

Article 62 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the EU AI Act) falls under Title VI — Measures in Support of Innovation — and establishes a framework of targeted support measures for providers and deployers of AI systems that qualify as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including start-ups.

The article imposes obligations primarily on Member States and the Commission, rather than on SMEs themselves. Under Article 62(1), Member States are required to take specific actions to support SMEs and start-ups, including ensuring their priority access to AI regulatory sandboxes established pursuant to Article 57. Where sandbox capacity is limited, competent authorities must give preferential treatment to SME and start-up applicants.

Article 62(2) requires Member States to organise specific awareness-raising activities about the AI Act targeted at SMEs and start-ups. Article 62(3) directs Member States, in coordination with the Commission, to facilitate the participation of SMEs in standardisation activities relevant to AI. Article 62(4) provides that where competent authorities charge fees for conformity assessment activities, reduced rates must be applied for SMEs. Finally, the Commission is required under Article 62(5) to develop dedicated guidance documents, compliance tools, and templates tailored to the needs and capacities of SMEs, taking into account resource limitations and the absence of in-house legal and technical expertise that is typical of larger enterprises.

What This Means in Practice

Article 62 operates as a horizontal support mechanism layered over the substantive compliance obligations of the EU AI Act. It does not reduce or waive those obligations for SMEs, but it creates a set of enforceable duties on public authorities to make compliance practically achievable for smaller actors.

For an SME or start-up developing or deploying a high-risk AI system — for example, an AI-assisted recruitment tool covered by Annex III — Article 62 means that when applying to participate in a national AI regulatory sandbox, the application should receive priority treatment over applications from large enterprises. This matters because sandbox capacity is finite and demand is expected to exceed available places in early implementation years.

For conformity assessment costs, SMEs should verify with their national competent authority or notified body whether reduced fees apply to their specific procedure. The fee reduction obligation is binding on Member States, though the exact scale of reduction is left to national implementation.

From a day-to-day compliance standpoint, the most practically relevant output of Article 62 is the Commission guidance and templates it mandates. SMEs without dedicated compliance or legal teams will be able to use standardised documentation templates — for technical documentation, risk management records, and conformity declarations — developed specifically for their context, reducing the cost and complexity of demonstrating compliance.

Start-ups in the pre-market phase should also consider engaging with standardisation bodies (CEN/CENELEC, ISO/IEC) at the national level, where Article 62(3) support channels may provide subsidised or facilitated access to working groups developing harmonised standards relevant to AI.

Key Obligations

• Member States must give SMEs and start-ups priority access to AI regulatory sandboxes established under Article 57 when allocating limited sandbox capacity.
• Member States must organise dedicated awareness-raising activities about the EU AI Act targeted specifically at SMEs and start-ups, addressing their particular challenges and resource constraints.
• Member States, in coordination with the Commission, must facilitate SME and start-up participation in standardisation activities related to AI systems.
• Where conformity assessment fees are charged by competent authorities or notified bodies, Member States must ensure that reduced rates are applied for SMEs.
• The Commission must develop and make available dedicated guidance, simplified compliance documentation templates, and practical tools designed for use by SMEs and start-ups without specialist legal or technical in-house capacity.
• Member States must establish at least one single information point or equivalent mechanism providing SMEs and start-ups with easily accessible information on compliance with the EU AI Act.

Relationship to Other Articles

Article 62 is operationally linked to Article 57 (AI regulatory sandboxes), which establishes the legal basis for national sandboxes and the framework within which Article 62's priority access obligation applies. It should be read alongside Article 58 (detailed provisions on sandbox arrangements) and Article 60 (testing of high-risk AI systems in real-world conditions), as SMEs are likely to be the primary beneficiaries of these innovation-support mechanisms.

Article 62 also connects structurally to the conformity assessment obligations in Articles 43 and 44 — the fee reductions it mandates become relevant when SMEs must engage a notified body under those articles. More broadly, it complements Article 55 (general innovation support measures) and Article 61 (obligations on Member States to support innovation). The support infrastructure created under Article 62 is overseen at Union level by the AI Office and the European Artificial Intelligence Board established under Articles 64 and 65 respectively.

Compliance Timeline

The EU AI Act entered into force on 1 August 2024, with application phased across several dates. Article 62 falls under Title VI, which has a general application date of 2 August 2025 — meaning that Member State obligations to set up SME support measures, priority sandbox access, and reduced fee structures were required to be operational by that date.

The practical significance of Article 62 intensifies as later phases come into force. High-risk AI systems listed in Annex III become fully subject to conformity assessment requirements from 2 August 2026, with certain high-risk systems in Annex I sectors applying from 2 August 2027. These are the moments when SMEs will most acutely need the sandbox access, guidance tools, and reduced-fee pathways that Article 62 mandates. SMEs should not wait until those deadlines to engage with national competent authorities: sandbox applications, standardisation participation, and familiarity with Commission templates should be pursued from mid-2025 onward to allow adequate preparation time.