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07/08/2026
The Fundamental Rights Impact Assessment (FRIA) under the EU AI Act is meant to protect fundamental rights from AI harms, but its practical rollout raises hard questions. This article unpacks FRIA’s core components and its relationship to the GDPR’s Data Protection Impact Assessment, showing how FRIA’s focus on “interferences” — rather than just quantifiable “damages” — gives it a far broader reach, including cases with no personal data at all. It then turns to the EU’s boldest move: an expansive jurisdictional claim built on “territorializing” extraterritorial obligations and the effects doctrine, positioning FRIA as a tool of internal due diligence with global human rights ambitions. The piece closes with a research agenda addressing sovereignty conflicts, AI’s black-box opacity, and the practical hurdles of enforcing rights-based standards worldwide.