Skip to main content
ConfirmedAI adjacent

Garante fines Character.AI 158,000 euro over age checks and protection of minors

Garante took fine action against Character Technologies, Inc. over Character.AI companion chatbot platform, announced 9 July 2026. The amount is 158,000 euro. Status: confirmed.

The record

Key facts

Record ID
AIT-2026-0003
Status
Confirmed
Action type
Fine
Regime
GDPR
Authority
Garante per la protezione dei dati personali
Jurisdiction
Italy
Target
Character Technologies, Inc., headquartered in United States
Sector
Companion chatbots
AI system
Character.AI companion chatbot platform
Date announced
Date of decision
Amount
158,000 euro
Appeal
None recorded. No opposition recorded as of 20 August 2026.
Last verified

In full

What happened, and why it matters

The most recent fine in this tracker, and the smallest against a private company. The Italian authority fined Character Technologies 158,000 euro over its companion chatbot platform, finding that the privacy information given to users was inadequate, that safeguards for minors and the age verification behind them did not work, that the data protection impact assessment was carried out late, and that the company appointed a representative in the Union late. The corrective orders are more demanding than the amount suggests: make age checks effective, close the re registration loophole that let a blocked minor sign up again, make minors' profiles private by default, and report back within 120 days. That reporting deadline is the part to watch, because it lands in November 2026 and non compliance opens a second phase in the same way the Clearview injunction did in France. Read next to the Replika fine from the year before, the direction is unmistakable. Italy has now sanctioned two companion chatbot providers on adjacent facts, both times about children, and both times about the gap between a terms of service age limit and a working age gate. The AI Act adds a duty on top of this from 2 August 2026: Article 50 requires that a person be told they are interacting with an AI system.

At a glance

The four things to take away

  • Fine of 158,000 euro, decision of 3 July 2026, announced 9 July 2026.
  • Findings: inadequate privacy information, ineffective age verification, late impact assessment, late appointment of an EU representative.
  • Orders include private by default profiles for minors and a report within 120 days.
  • The 120 day compliance report falls due in November 2026.
  • Second Italian sanction against a companion chatbot provider in fourteen months.

Orders

What the authority required

  • make age verification actually work
  • stop previously blocked minors from simply registering again
  • set the profiles of minors to private by default
  • report the measures adopted within 120 days

The law

Provisions this action rests on

Read the official text of Article 50 in the EU AI Act Explorer, consolidated with the Digital Omnibus applied.

How it moved

Timeline

  1. Garante adopts the fining decision

  2. Decision announced

  3. 120 day deadline for the company to report the measures adopted

Verification

Sources

Primary sources are the authority's own decision or press release, the Official Journal, or a court judgment. A record with no source is not published.

  1. Garante press release, Character.AI: sanzione del Garante privacyPrimary · 9 July 2026
  2. TechNadu, Italy's Garante Fines Character AI Owner 158,000 euro for GDPR BreachesSecondary · 10 July 2026

Next

Related enforcement actions

Cite this record

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with attribution. The record ID AIT-2026-0003 is permanent and is never reused.

In a sentence
According to the GAGE EU AI Act Enforcement Tracker (as of 20 August 2026), garante fines character.ai 158,000 euro over age checks and protection of minors.
APA
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). (2026). Garante fines Character.AI 158,000 euro over age checks and protection of minors. EU AI Act Enforcement Tracker. Retrieved 20 August 2026, from https://www.gage.academy/tools/eu-ai-act-enforcement-tracker/actions/AIT-2026-0003-garante-character-ai-minor-protection-fine
MLA
"Garante fines Character.AI 158,000 euro over age checks and protection of minors." EU AI Act Enforcement Tracker, GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education), 20 August 2026, https://www.gage.academy/tools/eu-ai-act-enforcement-tracker/actions/AIT-2026-0003-garante-character-ai-minor-protection-fine.
Chicago
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). "Garante fines Character.AI 158,000 euro over age checks and protection of minors." EU AI Act Enforcement Tracker. Last modified 20 August 2026. https://www.gage.academy/tools/eu-ai-act-enforcement-tracker/actions/AIT-2026-0003-garante-character-ai-minor-protection-fine.
Permalink
https://www.gage.academy/tools/eu-ai-act-enforcement-tracker/actions/AIT-2026-0003-garante-character-ai-minor-protection-fine

Back to the full enforcement tracker, or see every action against companion chatbots and every action in Italy.

Last updated . Every record re verified . The tracker is checked every Monday, and the same day for any action under the AI Act.

Powered by GAGE, free EU AI Act tools from the Global Academy of Generative-AI Education