European Parliament proposes new liability rules for AI companies

Four of the European Parliament’s most influential tech lawmakers have joined forces to demand a new AI Liability Act, a proposal that would force companies like OpenAI and Anthropic to face legal consequences when their most powerful models cause harm in ways nobody anticipated. The cross-party push, first reported by Politico based on written exchanges between lawmakers, represents a rare alignment of the Parliament’s major political factions. Conservative, social democrat, liberal, and green MEPs all signed the September 16, 2026 note to the European Commission. What the proposal would change The EU already has an AI Act, which took effect on August 1, 2024, and was celebrated as the world’s first comprehensive AI regulation. It uses a risk-based framework: the riskier the AI application, the stricter the rules. Obligations for general-purpose AI models kicked in on August 2, 2025, while high-risk system requirements were pushed back to late 2027 and mid-2028 through a July 2026 omnibus revision. The four MEPs behind the push are Kim van Sparrentak from the Greens, Axel Voss from the center-right EPP, Brando Benifei from the social democrats, and Michael McNamara from the libera...