VIA Nederland Maps 4 EU AI Disclosure Scenarios for Ad Agencies as 3% Fines Loom
Updated
Updated · PPC Land · Sep 5
VIA Nederland Maps 4 EU AI Disclosure Scenarios for Ad Agencies as 3% Fines Loom
3 articles · Updated · PPC Land · Sep 5
Summary
September 5 guidance from VIA Nederland tells creative agencies to assess AI disclosure by legal role and content type, not by whether tools like ChatGPT or Midjourney were used.
Four scenarios drive the check: chatbots must clearly identify themselves at first contact; image, audio and video need labels only if they qualify as deepfakes; text is covered mainly on matters of general interest; agencies building their own tools may face provider duties.
The guidance says most agencies are deployers using third-party systems, but custom apps built on existing models can blur the line and trigger separate machine-readable marking obligations.
Article 50 became enforceable across the EU on August 2, with penalties reaching 3% of global turnover or 15 million euros, while metadata or hidden watermarks alone do not satisfy visible disclosure duties.
That narrower reading matters commercially as well as legally: VIA Nederland argues over-labeling can hurt trust and click-through, so agencies should build a five-step disclosure review into campaign workflows from the start.