The Code of Practice covers Article 50 obligations — standardized methods for labeling AI-generated content — and is technically voluntary, but it establishes the baseline the Commission will reference when the full Act kicks in. If your product generates or surfaces AI content to EU users, the voluntary framing is a bit of a red herring: August 2 is the hard date, and the Code gives you the compliance template. The Commission is also proposing up to a 16-month delay on high-risk AI system rules, pending confirmation that the required standards and assessment tools are actually available. That's an acknowledgment that the regulatory machinery and the technical reality aren't synchronized — which won't surprise anyone who's been watching this process. The delay buys time, but it doesn't change the August 2 baseline for general-purpose AI providers.