---
title: "Prohibited practice"
description: "An AI practice banned outright by AI Act Article 5, such as manipulative techniques that cause significant harm, social scoring, untargeted scraping of facial images, emotion recognition at work or…"
canonical: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/prohibited-practice
author: "Jorge García Aibar"
license: "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)"
doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197
version: "0.5.0"
updated: 2026-09-25
---

# Prohibited practice

An AI practice banned outright by AI Act Article 5, such as manipulative techniques that cause significant harm, social scoring, untargeted scraping of facial images, emotion recognition at work or school, and most real-time remote biometric identification in public for law enforcement [1]. No risk acceptance can cover one.

- Developed in: [ch. 18, Prohibited practices (Article 5)](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/eu-ai-act#prohibited-practices-article-5)
- Chapters: [ch. 18, EU AI Act](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/eu-ai-act)
- Contrast with: [High-risk AI system](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/high-risk-ai-system)
- In the glossary chapter: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/glossary#t-prohibited-practice

## Sources

[1] Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), consolidated text as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI, in force 27 Jul 2026; definitions in Art. 3, incl. 3(1), 3(3) to 3(14), 3(14b), 3(20), 3(22), 3(23), 3(29) to 3(32), 3(49), 3(55) to 3(57), 3(60), 3(61), 3(63), 3(68); Arts. 4, 5, 6 (incl. 6(3) third subparagraph, profiling), 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 22 to 27 (incl. 26(11)), 40, 41, 43, 47, 48, 50, 53 (incl. 53(1)(c)), 55, 57, 60, 72, 73, 86; Annexes I, III, IV). Publications Office of the EU (EUR-Lex). 2026-07-27. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/2026-07-27/eng (verified: primary)