Prohibitions § 3.3.2

The third condition for the prohibition in Article 5(1) (b) AI Act to apply is that the exploitation of the vulnerabilities examined above must have either a) ‘the objective’ or b) ‘the effect of materially distorting the behaviour of a person or a group of persons’. This implies a substantial impact , rather than a minor or trivial one , but does not necessarily require intent, since Article 5(1)(b) AI Act covers practices that may only have the ‘effect’ of causing material distortion. Article 5(1) s (a) and (b) AI Act make use of the same concept s and should therefore be interpreted in the same way. The explanations provided in section 3.2.2. are therefore equally relevant for Article 5(1)(b) AI Act. The only noteworthy difference is the need in Article 5(1)(a) AI Act for the exploitative practice to ‘appreciably impair the ability to make an informed decision’ , which is not present in Article 5(1)(b) AI Act , since the specific vulnerabilit ies of children and other vul nerable persons reduce their capacity to make such informed decisions and force them into adopting behaviour against which they cannot protect themselves as other adults might do.