The EU sees ChatGPT’s scale as grounds for tougher public safeguards, while OpenAI now faces the practical task of bringing a fast-growing AI service into a regulatory regime built to make major online platforms more accountable.

The European Commission has designated ChatGPT a Very Large Online Search Engine under the Digital Services Act, placing it in the bloc’s highest tier of scrutiny. Reddit and Roblox were designated Very Large Online Platforms at the same time, extending the same broad safety push across AI, social discussion and gaming. ¹

The threshold is scale: services become “Very Large” when they reach at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU. For ChatGPT, the designation means OpenAI will be expected to assess and reduce risks tied to minors, users’ mental health and the spread of illegal content.

The move also reaches into the mechanics of how large digital services operate. The DSA limits targeted advertising aimed at minors and bars ad targeting based on sensitive traits including sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity and political beliefs. It further requires greater transparency around recommendation algorithms. ¹

Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, framed the decision as a response to the companies’ reach: “These new designations mean that ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union, in line with their large impact on our citizens and society.” ¹

The timeline is now fixed. ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox have until the end of December 2026 to comply. The EU’s message is that generative AI is no longer being treated as a regulatory exception: at sufficient scale, it belongs in the same safety-and-accountability conversation as the internet’s biggest platforms.