Is there a fine for not training your staff on AI? What Article 99 says

There is no fine for failing to train your staff on artificial intelligence. The obligation is real, but Article 99 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 — where the penalty regime lives — does not mention Article 4 in any of its paragraphs. Much of what is published on this topic says otherwise, and it is worth being able to check for yourself.

What Article 4 actually requires

Article 4 of the AI Act, applicable since 2 February 2025, requires providers and deployers to take measures ensuring a sufficient level of AI literacy among their staff. The level expected is calibrated to those people’s technical knowledge, experience, education and training, and to the context in which the systems are used. It is an obligation of means, not of result, and it sets neither training hours nor a syllabus.

Which breaches do carry fines under Article 99

Article 99 sets out an exhaustive list of fineable breaches and their amounts. This is the complete list:

• Article 5, prohibited AI practices: up to 35 million euro or 7 % of worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher.
• Articles 16, 22, 23, 24, 26, 31, 33 and 34, obligations of providers, authorised representatives, importers, distributors, deployers and notified bodies: up to 15 million or 3 %.
• Article 50, transparency obligations, including disclosing that a person is interacting with an AI: up to 15 million or 3 %.
• Incorrect, incomplete or misleading information supplied to authorities: up to 7.5 million or 1 %.

Article 4 appears in none of those paragraphs. For SMEs and startups the Regulation also takes the lower of the fixed amount and the percentage, not the higher.

So why do so many pages claim there are fines for not training

Because training sells better with a number next to it. Search results are full of consultancy and training-provider pages citing severe fines without naming an article or an amount, and others attributing the 15 million of Article 99(4) to Article 4. Neither holds up against the text. It is a clear case of content copied between sites without going back to the source.

What can actually happen without AI literacy

No direct fine does not mean no consequence. Three, in order of real likelihood. First and most immediate: AI literacy shows up in enterprise procurement questionnaires, so its absence blocks contracts long before any inspector appears. Second: a lack of training can aggravate another breach that is fineable, since Article 99(7) requires weighing circumstances such as gravity and duration. Third: national market surveillance authorities can request information and take measures outside the fines regime.

What is still undecided in Spain

The Spanish penalty regime is not settled yet. The Organic Law Bill on the good use and governance of artificial intelligence was approved by the Council of Ministers on 26 May 2026 and published in the Official Bulletin of the Cortes Generales on 12 June 2026, with an amendment period running to 30 June. It remains in parliamentary process and, as an organic law, requires an absolute majority in Congress. Until it passes, any claim about specific penalty amounts in Spain is anticipating a text that can still change.

What to do about it

Training your team is still mandatory and still worth doing, but for the right reason: because it is required, because a client will ask about it in the next vendor review, and because documenting it costs little. What is not needed is buying it in a hurry over a fine the Regulation does not provide for. If someone sells you training quoting a figure, ask them for the article.