Yes, in many cases. Article 2 of the EU AI Act applies to providers that place AI systems or general-purpose AI models on the EU market wherever they are established, and to providers and deployers outside the EU whose AI output is used in the EU. For a Latin American AI company selling into Spain or any other Member State, that AI Act extraterritorial scope is the gateway to obligations that include copyright duties for model providers. This guide is for founders, CTOs and counsel in Latin America deciding what applies before they enter the EU.
Key takeaways
- A provider that places an AI system or model on the EU market is covered irrespective of where it is established (Article 2(1)(a)).
- Output used in the EU can bring a non-EU provider or deployer within scope even without a sale in the EU (Article 2(1)(c)).
- General-purpose AI (GPAI) model providers must keep a copyright policy and publish a training content summary, regardless of where the training took place.
- A non-EU GPAI provider must appoint an authorised representative in the EU before placing its model on the market (Article 54).
- The Digital Omnibus on AI, in force since 27 July 2026, moved high-risk deadlines but did not change the territorial scope.
AI Act extraterritorial scope: when does it reach a company outside the EU?
The AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) follows the product into the market, not the company into its home country. Article 2(1) lists who is covered, including providers “irrespective of whether those providers are established or located within the Union or in a third country”. Typical situations for a Latin American company:
| Situation | Role and legal basis | What to check first |
|---|---|---|
| Offering an AI chatbot or content generator to customers in Spain under your brand | Provider placing a system on the EU market (Art. 2(1)(a)) | Transparency duties of Article 50 and the risk level of the use case |
| Licensing your own large language model to EU developers through an API | Provider of a GPAI model (Art. 2(1)(a), Arts. 53 and 54) | Technical documentation, copyright policy, training summary, EU authorised representative |
| Running an AI service from Latin America and sending its results to an EU client | Non-EU provider or deployer whose output is used in the EU (Art. 2(1)(c)) | Whether the use is prohibited or high-risk |
| Supplying a model that an EU company fine-tunes and integrates | Upstream GPAI provider; the EU company is usually a downstream provider | Information to give downstream and who becomes “provider” of the modified model |
| Using AI only internally for Latin American operations, with no EU output | Generally outside scope | Keep it that way when you sign EU customers |
What counts as “placing on the market” and “output used in the EU”?
Placing on the market means the first making available of an AI system or GPAI model on the EU market, and making available covers supply in the course of a commercial activity, “whether in return for payment or free of charge” (Article 3(9) and (10)). A free tier offered to EU users therefore counts. A provider is whoever develops a system or model, or has it developed, and places it on the market under its own name or trademark (Article 3(3)), which is why your brand is part of your regulatory identity in Europe.
The output rule exists to prevent circumvention. Recital 22 gives the example of an EU operator that contracts an AI service to a provider outside the EU and receives the output; the Act applies to the extent that output is intended to be used in the EU.
What IP duties does the AI Act impose on non-EU model providers?
Under Article 53(1), GPAI providers must document the model, inform downstream providers, put in place a policy to comply with EU copyright law (including text and data mining opt-outs under Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790) and publish a sufficiently detailed summary of training content using the AI Office template. Recital 106 states that the copyright policy applies “regardless of the jurisdiction” where the copyright-relevant training acts take place, so training in Latin America does not avoid it.
The General-Purpose AI Code of Practice, published on 10 July 2025, is the main voluntary route to show compliance. Its copyright chapter commits signatories to:
- use crawlers that follow robots.txt and other widely adopted machine-readable opt-outs;
- not circumvent paywalls or other technological protection measures, and exclude sites recognised in the EU as persistently infringing;
- apply safeguards against infringing outputs and prohibit infringing uses in their terms;
- designate a point of contact and accept complaints from rights holders.
Two practical rules follow. Open-source releases with public weights are exempt from the documentation duties and from appointing a representative, but not from the copyright policy or the training summary, and never for models with systemic risk (Articles 53(2) and 54(6)). And the Commission can fine GPAI providers up to 3% of worldwide turnover or EUR 15 million, whichever is higher, from 2 August 2026 (Articles 101 and 113); models already on the market before 2 August 2025 have until 2 August 2027 to comply (Article 111(3)).
Which other AI Act obligations should a Latin American company check?
- Prohibited practices (Article 5), applicable since 2 February 2025, with new bans on non-consensual intimate deepfakes from 2 December 2026.
- Transparency (Article 50): telling users they are interacting with AI and marking synthetic content in a machine-readable way; systems already on the market before 2 August 2026 have until 2 December 2026 for marking under the Digital Omnibus (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744).
- High-risk uses such as recruitment or creditworthiness (Annex III): obligations from 2 December 2027, including an EU authorised representative for non-EU providers (Article 22).
What this means for your business
- Map each product against each EU market and decide your role: provider of a system, provider of a model, deployer or none.
- If you provide a GPAI model, prepare the copyright policy, the training summary and the representative mandate before launch, not after the first customer.
- Audit your training data sources: which licences cover EU uses, and how your crawlers detect opt-outs.
- Register the brand you will trade under in the EU, for example as an EU trade mark at the EUIPO, so the name that identifies you as provider is also protected.
- Protect trade secrets in documentation: Article 53 information is shared “without prejudice” to trade secrets, and authorities must keep it confidential (Article 78), but what you give downstream customers needs contracts.
Our team for AI and digital assets IP can review training data licences, opt-out compliance and model terms, and our cross-border IP strategy between Latin America and Europe covers brand and portfolio planning for market entry.
Where Latin American AI companies get the AI Act wrong
- Assuming no EU entity means no AI Act. Placing on the EU market, or EU use of output, is what counts.
- Believing that training outside Europe avoids EU copyright rules for the policy. Recital 106 closes that door.
- Scraping without reading opt-outs. Ignored reservations under Article 4(3) expose you both under the AI Act and under copyright law in each Member State.
- Launching under an unregistered brand. Someone else may hold the name in the EU, and rebranding after launch also means updating documentation.
- Treating the free tier as outside scope. Supply free of charge is still making available on the market.
These risks multiply when regulatory advice, copyright clearance and trade mark filings are handled by different firms on different continents. One coordinated plan keeps them consistent.
Frequently asked questions
Does the AI Act apply if my company has no office in the EU?
It can. Article 2(1)(a) covers providers that place AI systems or general-purpose AI models on the EU market irrespective of where they are established, and Article 2(1)(c) covers non-EU providers and deployers whose AI output is used in the EU. Having no EU office does not take you out of scope.
If we train our model in Latin America, do EU copyright rules still apply?
For the AI Act copyright policy, yes. Recital 106 says providers placing GPAI models on the EU market must comply regardless of the jurisdiction where training took place, including respecting EU text and data mining opt-outs. Whether a particular act infringes copyright is still decided under national law in each country.
Is an open-source model exempt from the AI Act?
Only partly. Models released under a free and open-source licence with public weights are exempt from the technical documentation duties and from appointing an EU representative. They must still have a copyright policy and publish a training content summary, and the exemption does not apply to models with systemic risk.
Can IP Global Guard help a Latin American AI company enter the EU?
Yes. We review your training data licences and opt-out compliance, plan and coordinate EU trade mark filings, and draft licensing and customer terms, working directly before EUIPO where our professionals are entitled and through qualified representatives otherwise. AI Act compliance is handled within the same group, from a single point of contact.
How IP Global Guard can help you enter the EU
For a Latin American AI company, the AI Act is as much an IP question as a regulatory one: training data, opt-outs, brand and trade secrets all travel with the product. IP Global Guard, the IP services line of META Channel Corporation Limited, works across more than 25 jurisdictions in Europe, Latin America and Africa with one strategy and one billing relationship.
Send us a short description of your product, the EU markets you are targeting and how your model is trained. We will tell you which role you hold under the AI Act, which IP steps come first and how to sequence them with your launch. Contact our AI and cross-border team.
This article is general information, not legal advice, and reflects the position at its date of publication.
Sources
- EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), OJ L, 12 July 2024
- EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI), OJ L, 24 July 2026
- AI Act Explorer, Article 2: Scope
- AI Act Explorer, Article 53: Obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models
- European Commission, General-purpose AI models in the AI Act: questions and answers (updated 9 September 2025)
- European Commission, The General-Purpose AI Code of Practice (published 10 July 2025)
