Lithuania names the RRT an AI Act market surveillance authority and its national single point of contact, effective 1 April 2025

By Anthony Guerriero, Editor, AI Regulation Tracker. Vilnius, filed 14 January 2025. Last verified: 2026-07-25.

Most of the attention on the EU AI Act has stayed at the Brussels level, but the Regulation only bites once each member state names the bodies that will police it at home. Lithuania answered that question early, and it answered it in a way worth watching: instead of standing up a brand new AI agency, it put a market surveillance role and the country's national single point of contact into one existing regulator, the Ryšių reguliavimo tarnyba (Communications Regulatory Authority, RRT). It did not make the RRT the country's only AI supervisor, though; the Ministry is explicit that sectoral regulators keep their own roles. That designation is the specific, citable fact this piece pins down, straight from the Lithuanian Ministry of the Economy and Innovation and the RRT itself.

What changed

According to the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation (Ekonomikos ir inovacijų ministerija), the Seimas, Lithuania's parliament, approved amendments to two laws on 14 January 2025: the Law on Technology and Innovation and the Law on Information Society Services. The Ministry's competent authorities page states it directly: "2025 m. sausio 14 d. Seimas pritarė abiejų įstatymų pakeitimams." The Ministry describes these amendments as Lithuania's mechanism to implement the AI Act's requirement to designate two national competent authorities and a single point of contact, together with a limited AI regulatory sandbox for testing AI systems. The Ministry says the amendments followed Government resolution No. 860 of 16 October 2024, which sent both draft bills to the Seimas.

The result is a two-body structure. The RRT was given market surveillance authority and single point of contact functions. The Innovation Agency (Inovacijų agentūra) was given the separate notifying authority role, which handles the accreditation and notification of the conformity assessment bodies that certify high risk AI systems. The Ministry's competent authorities page states it plainly:

"Nuo 2025-04-01 RRT atlieka rinkos priežiūros institucijos ir bendrojo kontaktinio punkto funkcijas pagal DI aktą."

English gloss: "From 1 April 2025 the RRT performs the functions of market surveillance authority and single point of contact under the AI Act." (Ministry of the Economy and Innovation)

How the RRT-based model works, and how far it reaches

What makes Lithuania's choice distinctive is not that it named a regulator. Every member state has to. It is that it gave the market surveillance and contact-point job to a body that already supervises telecommunications, radio, postal services and railways, rather than building a dedicated AI office from scratch. The RRT carries the outward facing single point of contact function, which is the channel other member states and the European Commission use to reach the country on AI matters. It is not, though, the only body that supervises AI inside Lithuania, as the Ministry stresses and as the scope-limits section below sets out.

The RRT's own regulation page sets out how it reads the role. It confirms the split with the Innovation Agency:

"Lietuvoje šiuo metu rinkos priežiūros institucija paskirta RRT, o notifikuojančiąja - Inovacijų agentūra."

English gloss: "In Lithuania, the RRT has currently been designated as the market surveillance authority, and the Innovation Agency as the notifying authority." (RRT)

Beyond surveillance, the RRT says it would help coordinate cooperation among market surveillance authorities, provide methodological guidance, and pass information to the European Commission. It also flags a concrete substantive duty: overseeing the transparency obligations set out in Article 50 of the AI Act, meaning the rules that require people to be told when they are interacting with an AI system or looking at AI generated or manipulated content, including synthetic media labeling. That gives the RRT a real enforcement surface, not just a mailbox.

Effective dates

The dates matter because they stagger, and because the parliamentary vote and the operational start are not the same day.

Milestone	Date	Source
Government resolution No. 860 sends draft laws to the Seimas	16 October 2024	Ministry
Seimas approves both amending laws	14 January 2025	Ministry / e-tar.lt
RRT market surveillance and single point of contact functions apply	1 April 2025	Ministry
Innovation Agency notifying authority functions apply	From August 2025 (Ministry page lists both 1 and 2 August 2025)	Ministry

One wrinkle is worth flagging on the notifying authority date: the Ministry's own page is not consistent. Its narrative text says the Innovation Agency was empowered from 2 August 2025, while the functions table on the same page says 1 August 2025. Because the primary source itself gives two dates, the safe reading is simply that the notifying role takes effect from August 2025.

These national start dates sit on top of the AI Act's own EU timeline. Under Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the Act entered into force on 1 August 2024, its prohibited-practice rules applied from 2 February 2025, the obligations for general purpose AI models applied from 2 August 2025, and the bulk of the high risk system obligations apply from 2 August 2026, with a further tranche for high risk systems that are regulated products following on 2 August 2027. Those are the European Commission's published application dates for the Regulation.

How Lithuania compares to peer EU designations

The AI Act lets each country decide how many authorities to use and which existing bodies to lean on, so the national picture varies a lot. The table below frames the models rather than claiming a fixed roster, because several member states are still finalizing their designations.

Approach	Example	How the lead and contact role is filled
Existing sector regulator repurposed as contact point	Lithuania (RRT)	An established communications and infrastructure regulator takes a market surveillance role plus the national single point of contact, the notifying role is split off to the Innovation Agency, and sectoral regulators keep supervising in their own fields
Purpose built AI agency	Spain (AESIA)	A dedicated national AI supervision agency was created specifically to lead AI oversight
Distributed multi authority model	Several EU member states	Multiple sectoral regulators supervise AI in their own domains, with one body designated as the single point of contact for coordination

The honest reading of Lithuania is that it is a hybrid. It can look like a single-authority model from the outside, because one regulator holds the market surveillance role and the contact point, but the enforcement work is still shared with sectoral supervisors underneath. That distinction is easy to get wrong, so it is worth stating carefully in the next section.

What the RRT designation does NOT do

It does not make the RRT the only body that can police AI in Lithuania. The Ministry is explicit that sectoral regulators keep their own supervisory functions:

"Tačiau RRT nebus vienintelė rinkos priežiūros institucija - kitos sektorinės rinkos priežiūros institucijos taip pat vykdys priežiūros funkcijas igyvendinant tiesiogiai taikomas DI akto nuostatas."

English gloss: "However, the RRT will not be the sole market surveillance authority; other sectoral market surveillance authorities will also carry out supervisory functions in implementing the directly applicable provisions of the AI Act." (Ministry)

It also does not fold in the notifying function, which belongs to the Innovation Agency, and it does not hand the RRT power over general purpose AI models, which the AI Act reserves for the European Commission's AI Office. And it does not, by itself, enact the fuller AI Act implementation law that the RRT references as a draft on its site. That broader statute, which would spell out the complete institutional model including fundamental rights protection roles, was still in draft at the time of verification, so the operative facts here rest on the two amendments the Seimas actually passed, not on the pending bill.

Practical steps for AI providers and deployers in Lithuania

If you build, place on the market, import, distribute or deploy AI systems that touch Lithuania, the designation gives you a clear front door. First, treat the RRT as your single point of contact and the address for complaints; the Ministry lists di@rrt.lt for AI complaints. Second, if you are a conformity assessment body that wants to certify high risk systems, your counterpart is the Innovation Agency as the notifying authority, not the RRT. Third, map your systems against the Article 50 transparency duties, because that is the substantive area the RRT has said it will oversee, and label synthetic and deepfake content in a machine readable and visible way as the Regulation requires. Fourth, do not assume the RRT is your only regulator; if your AI sits inside a sector with its own supervisor, expect that authority to stay involved.

Key Facts

Instrument: Amendments to the Law on Technology and Innovation and the Law on Information Society Services (national AI Act competent authority designations), approved by the Seimas on 14 January 2025. Source: Ministry of the Economy and Innovation.
Issuer: Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, following Government resolution No. 860 of 16 October 2024.
Market surveillance authority and SPoC: Ryšių reguliavimo tarnyba (RRT), designated an AI Act market surveillance authority and the national single point of contact, effective 1 April 2025. Source: Ministry.
Notifying authority: Inovacijų agentūra (Innovation Agency), from August 2025 (the Ministry page lists both 1 and 2 August 2025). Source: Ministry.
Scope limit: The RRT is not the sole market surveillance authority; sectoral regulators also supervise. Source: Ministry.
Status: Enacted and in force. Verified against the Ministry competent authorities page (updated 23 July 2025) and the RRT AI regulation page.

Frequently asked questions

Is the RRT Lithuania's only AI Act authority?

No. According to the Ministry, the RRT is designated an AI Act market surveillance authority and the national single point of contact from 1 April 2025, and the Innovation Agency is the notifying authority from August 2025. The Ministry states the RRT will not be the sole market surveillance authority, because other sectoral regulators also carry out supervisory functions.

When did the RRT designation take effect?

According to the Ministry, the Seimas approved the two amending laws on 14 January 2025. The RRT's market surveillance and single point of contact functions apply from 1 April 2025; the Innovation Agency's notifying functions apply from August 2025 (the Ministry page lists both 1 and 2 August 2025).

What laws made the change?

Amendments to the Law on Technology and Innovation and the Law on Information Society Services, both approved by the Seimas on 14 January 2025, according to the Ministry, following Government resolution No. 860 of 16 October 2024.

Primary sources

For the full by jurisdiction picture, see the TLY AI Regulation tracker and its Europe coverage of member state AI Act authority designations.