ChatGPT becomes first AI chatbot to face stricter EU rules under Digital Services Act

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OpenAI's ChatGPT will have to comply with tougher EU rules such as removing illegal content or face potential fines, the European Commission said on Monday, as Brussels grapples with how its existing digital regulation applies to rapidly evolving AI services. The Commission said the chatbot, social media forum Reddit and gaming platform Roblox would be classified as so-called very large online platforms under the EU Digital Services Act, its landmark online safety regime. The designation means all three services will face additional obligations such as removing illegal content and protecting the privacy and security of minors, and could face fines of up to 6 percent of their global revenue if they fail to comply. The decision marks a further expansion of the DSA into generative AI, with X's AI chatbot Grok already facing an investigation under the law. "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," said the EU's tech chief Henna Virkkunen. The move comes after all three services surpassed 45 million monthly users in the EU, the threshold for enhanced scrutiny under the DSA. They now have until the end of December to comply with the additional obligations. A spokesperson for OpenAI said the company was preparing to meet the additional compliance requirements. Roblox said it was "proud to be the first gaming platform to reach this milestone in the EU" and that "safety is foundational to everything we do and we look forward to continuing our constructive engagement with the European Commission." Reddit did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The EU is also starting to enforce its AI Act, the world's first regime regulating the development of the fast-developing technology. Under its competition rule book, the bloc has also started an investigation into AI services, including whether Google breached EU competition rules in its use of AI overviews. The expansion of the DSA comes as Brussels faces pressure from Washington over its regulation of US tech companies, including over fines under the law against companies such as Elon Musk's X. Washington claims the EU is unfairly targeting US groups and infringing freedom of speech principles championed by the Maga movement. However, the Commission insists its digital laws apply to companies regardless of where they are based. In July, Chinese online marketplace AliExpress was fined €550 million under the DSA for failing to do enough to prevent the sale of illegal products on its platform.

ChatGPT becomes the first AI chatbot designated under the DSA

ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox now face the DSA's strictest tier. The first AI chatbot to be designated has four months to comply. The European Commission has classified ChatGPT as a search engine. Monday's designation brings the chatbot under the Digital Services Act as a Very Large Online Search Engine, alongside Reddit and Roblox, which have been designated as Very Large Online Platforms. ChatGPT is the first AI chatbot to be designated under the regime. The Commission announced the decision after signalling in July that it intended to act as soon as August. The designation itself follows a fairly simple calculation. Services with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU fall under the DSA's threshold, and ChatGPT reported 159 million monthly active users across the six months to March 2026. Reddit and Roblox also cleared the threshold, although by a smaller margin. Reddit reported 57.2 million monthly users, while Roblox had roughly 48 million, putting both above the limit but well below ChatGPT's reported reach. The more unusual part is the decision to treat ChatGPT as a search engine. A chatbot that responds to questions in prose is now being regulated in the same category as services that organise and direct users to information on the web. The distinction matters because the DSA imposes different requirements depending on what kind of service is being designated. For ChatGPT, that means the Commission is applying search-related obligations to a system that does not simply retrieve and rank web pages, but generates answers. That raises questions about how those answers are produced, what risks they create, and how those risks can be assessed. The designation itself does not introduce a new set of rules. Instead, it brings the three companies into a compliance regime that requires annual systemic risk assessments covering areas including illegal content, the protection of minors, physical and mental wellbeing, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security. The companies will also have to submit to independent audits and provide access to data for regulators and vetted researchers. Data access has been one of the more contentious parts of the DSA for large online platforms, particularly when researchers seek information that companies consider commercially sensitive. "These new designations mean that ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability," said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy. The companies have four months to comply, putting the deadline at the end of November. The DSA allows the Commission to impose fines of up to 6% of a company's global annual turnover for serious violations. For Roblox, the requirements around minors are particularly significant. Much of the platform's audience is made up of children and teenagers, so the company will now have to formally assess and mitigate risks to their safety and wellbeing, with those measures subject to independent auditing. OpenAI faces a different problem. Its assessment will have to address systemic risks around electoral processes and public security, among other areas. For a general-purpose AI system used for everything from everyday questions to political information, that means translating broad concerns about how AI can influence people at scale into risks that can actually be identified, measured, and audited. Reddit's designation raises another set of questions. It is the smallest of the three services by user numbers, but it hosts a huge amount of public discussion and has become an increasingly valuable source of data for AI companies. Reddit has spent the past two years turning access to that content into a licensing business, making the platform's relationship with AI developers an increasingly important part of its commercial model. The designations also have a specific legal anchor. They apply to named entities rather than simply to the consumer-facing brands: OpenAI Ireland Limited, Reddit Netherlands B.V. and Roblox Corporation are listed in the Commission's register, with national regulators in Ireland and the Netherlands sharing enforcement responsibilities with the Commission. The decision comes as European technology enforcement is becoming more active across several fronts. Poland has asked the Commission to fine Meta €250 million over scam advertising, while the Commission is separately preparing measures that would require Google to open Android to rival AI assistants under the Digital Markets Act. Neither OpenAI, Reddit nor Roblox has publicly challenged the designations. They can appeal the decisions, although doing so would put the companies in the unusual position of disputing a classification based largely on user numbers they have themselves reported. The broader significance is that the DSA is now being applied well beyond the social networks and content platforms it was originally associated with. In a single announcement, the Commission has brought a chatbot, an online forum and a platform heavily used by children under the same high-level regulatory framework, even though the services create very different kinds of risks. The practical test will come in November, when the first risk assessments are due. For OpenAI in particular, the interesting question will be whether a framework designed around traditional online platforms can meaningfully account for a system that generates information rather than simply hosting or distributing it.

ChatGPT becomes first AI chatbot to face tougher EU rules

Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) - ChatGPT will have to comply with tougher safety rules after the EU added it Monday to a list of digital services subject to greater legal scrutiny in Europe, a first for an AI chatbot. Brussels also designated the Reddit forum and the popular gaming network Roblox as "very large" online platforms, a label that comes with additional obligations and oversight. "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," EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen said. The "very large" designation applies to platforms and search engines with more than 45 million monthly active users in the 27-nation bloc, a threshold ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox reported meeting, the commission said. The three now have four months to comply with additional obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a content law that is a major weapon in the legal armoury the EU has deployed to rein in Big Tech in recent years. These include "assessing and mitigating" risks related to "the dissemination of illegal content, the negative effects on minors, users' physical and mental well-being, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security," Brussels said. To bring it under the DSA's regulatory umbrella, the commission qualified ChatGPT as a search engine. The hugely popular artificial intelligence chatbot developed by US company OpenAI reported more than 159 million users in the EU at the end of March, representing over a third of the bloc's population. Lena-Maria Boswald, of the German tech think tank Interface, said ahead of the announcement that the expected move would set a "precedent" and "influence the regulatory expectations for every large generative AI system used in the EU". "OpenAI already has risk-management obligations under the AI Act, but the DSA could widen the scope," she said. The widened scrutiny will also apply to Roblox, a US-based gaming platform popular with children and known for its immersive world of colourful graphics, and to the sprawling US discussion platform Reddit. Roblox says it has 46.6 million active players in the EU, just above the DSA threshold for tougher scrutiny, while Reddit says it has more than 57 million users in the bloc. Heavy fines The designations come as the EU has stepped up regulatory enforcement against the world's biggest digital platforms, including many American ones, despite strong US pushback and threats of retaliation. The EU has separately adopted the world's most far-reaching rules to govern artificial intelligence. The flagship AI Act entered into force in 2024, with obligations kicking in over several years to curb uses of the technology deemed too dangerous. The EU recently told TikTok, one of about 30 platforms listed under the DSA, to change what it deemed its addictive design or face heavy fines. A majority of listed services are owned by major technology companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, TikTok, X, Amazon and Shein. The lost also includes several porn sites and the collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Companies found in breach of the DSA face heavy penalties, including fines of up to six percent of their annual global turnover and, in cases of serious and repeated violations, a possible ban on operating in Europe. To date, the EU has hit three firms with penalties under the law: shopping giants Temu and AliExpress, and Elon Musk's social media platform X, which was handed a 120-million-euro ($138 million) fine for transparency and other violations.

EU places ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox under strictest digital safety rules

Brussels has classified ChatGPT as a search engine under the Digital Services Act, a first for an AI chatbot, and designated Reddit and Roblox as Very Large Online Platforms. All three have four months to comply. The European Commission has designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine and Reddit and Roblox as Very Large Online Platforms under the Digital Services Act, subjecting all three to the bloc's strictest online safety regime. The designation will prove particularly consequential for ChatGPT because the Commission has concluded that an AI chatbot that pulls live results from the internet functions, in regulatory terms, as a search engine -- not merely a platform. "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," said Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy. The Commission described ChatGPT as a "hybrid service" that qualifies as an online search engine under the DSA because it can engage with and respond to users' prompts and queries, including by searching the web. Reddit and Roblox have been designated as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs), as both allow users to create and share content publicly. "We continue to watch the digital landscape closely and will not hesitate to designate any platform that meets the threshold for enhanced supervision under the Digital Services Act." Under the DSA, online services that reach more than 45 million monthly users in the EU -- roughly one in 10 of the bloc's population -- are classified as either Very Large Online Platforms or Very Large Online Search Engines, depending on what they do. OpenAI disclosed that ChatGPT's search function averaged about 159 million monthly active users in the bloc for the six months ending March 2026, while Reddit reported 57.2 million and Roblox roughly 48 million. The three services now have four months -- until the end of November -- to comply with a suite of obligations reserved for the largest platforms, including annual systemic risk assessments covering illegal content, the protection of minors, effects on users' mental and physical wellbeing, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security. They must also submit to independent audits and share data with regulators and vetted researchers. The Commission will supervise compliance in cooperation with Ireland's Coimisiún na Meán, the digital services coordinator for ChatGPT and Reddit, and the Netherlands' Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) for Roblox. The designations bring the total number of platforms and search engines under the DSA's strictest tier to 28. The regulation has already produced around €870 million in fines, including a record €550 million penalty against AliExpress in July for failing to curb the sale of illegal and counterfeit goods, a €200 million fine against Temu in May for comparable failings and a €120 million fine against X in December 2025 over content moderation and transparency shortcomings. Non-compliance can attract penalties of up to 6% of a company's global annual turnover -- a figure that, for OpenAI and its rapidly growing revenue, could prove substantial. Washington has taken a dim view of the EU's enforcement drive. The Trump administration called DMA fines on Apple and Meta a "novel form of economic extortion" and has threatened retaliation against countries with digital rules targeting US tech firms -- rhetoric that could sharpen now that three more American-owned services have been brought under direct Commission supervision.

ChatGPT becomes first AI chatbot to face tougher EU rules

ChatGPT and platforms like Reddit and Roblox face stricter EU safety rules. These services now have additional obligations under the Digital Services Act. They must assess and mitigate systemic risks from their content and algorithms. This move sets a precedent for regulating generative AI systems in the EU. ChatGPT will have to comply with tougher safety rules after the EU added it Monday to a list of digital services subject to greater legal scrutiny, a first for an AI chatbot. Brussels also designated Reddit and Roblox as "very large" online platforms, a label that comes with additional obligations and oversight. "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," EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen said. Also Read: Claude Code users to get 17% less weekly usage from September 14 as Anthropic ends 50% boost The "very large" designation applies to platforms and search engines with more than 45 million monthly active users in the 27-nation bloc, a threshold ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox reported meeting, the commission said. The three now have four months to comply with additional obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a content law that is a major weapon in the legal armoury the EU has deployed to rein in Big Tech in recent years. These include "assessing and mitigating the systemic risks stemming from their service and algorithmic systems related to the dissemination of illegal content, the negative effects on minors, users' physical and mental well-being, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security," Brussels said. To bring it under the DSA's regulatory umbrella, the commission qualified ChatGPT as a search engine. Lena-Maria Boswald, of the German tech think tank Interface, said ahead of the announcement that the expected move would set a "precedent" and "influence the regulatory expectations for every large generative AI system used in the EU". "OpenAI already has risk-management obligations under the AI Act, but the DSA could widen the scope," she said. Also Read: OpenAI issued warrants worth $5.5 billion in SB Energy, WSJ reports The widened scrutiny will also apply to Roblox, a gaming platform that lets people build their own games and share them with others, and Reddit, the popular online forum. The designations come as the EU has stepped up regulatory enforcement against the world's biggest digital platforms, including many American ones, despite strong US pushback and threats of retaliation. It recently told TikTok, one of the about 30 other listed platforms, to change what it deemed its addictive design or face heavy fines. And last year it hit Elon Musk's social media platform X with a 120-million-euro ($138 million) fine for breaching transparency obligations and other violations.

ChatGPT Faces Greater Regulatory Oversight by EU | PYMNTS.com

The European Union said ChatGPT qualifies for greater oversight by its antitrust regulator. OpenAI's chatbot has been designated a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE) under Europe's Digital Services Act, the European Commission said in a Monday (Aug. 31) press release. The commission also labeled Reddit and Roblox as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOP). "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," Henna Virkkunen, the commission's executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in the release. "We continue to watch the digital landscape closely and will not hesitate to designate any platform that meets the threshold for enhanced supervision under the Digital Services Act." The three companies meet the threshold for the new designation because they reach at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU. The companies have until the end of January 2027 to take measures to comply with the new designations, according to the release. These include "assessing and mitigating the systemic risks stemming from their service and algorithmic systems related to the dissemination of illegal content, the negative effects on minors, users' physical and mental well-being, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security," the release said. The designations give the commission "investigative powers to assess the functionalities behind these services and, where applicable, any related system," according to the release. To date, the commission has designated 28 companies as VLOPs and VLOSEs, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok. "ChatGPT search operates as a search service under the DSA, and we are preparing to meet the additional compliance requirements that come with this Very Large Online Search Engine designation," a spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement to PYMNTS. The company added that the designation illustrates Europe's rapid adoption of new search methods, with ChatGPT one of three search services designated under the DSA at this scale. The other two search services are Microsoft Bing and Google Search. Roblox said in a statement provided to PYMNTS: "We are proud to be the first gaming platform to reach this milestone in the EU, growth driven by our developer community and backed by our commitment to fostering a safe, civil and age-appropriate online experience. From pioneering age-check systems for chat and content, to default protections for younger players, safety is foundational to everything we do, and we look forward to continuing our constructive engagement with the European Commission." Reddit did not reply to PYMNTS' request for comment. For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.

ChatGPT becomes first AI chatbot to face tougher EU rules

ChatGPT will have to comply with tougher safety rules after the EU added it Monday to a list of digital services subject to greater legal scrutiny, a first for an AI chatbot. Brussels also designated Reddit and Roblox as "very large" online platforms, a label that comes with additional obligations and oversight. "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," EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen said. The "very large" designation applies to platforms and search engines with more than 45 million monthly active users in the 27-nation bloc, a threshold ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox reported meeting, the commission said. The three now have four months to comply with additional obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a content law that is a major weapon in the legal armoury the EU has deployed to rein in Big Tech in recent years. These include "assessing and mitigating the systemic risks stemming from their service and algorithmic systems related to the dissemination of illegal content, the negative effects on minors, users' physical and mental well-being, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security," Brussels said. To bring it under the DSA's regulatory umbrella, the commission qualified ChatGPT as a search engine. Lena-Maria Boswald, of the German tech think tank Interface, said ahead of the announcement that the expected move would set a "precedent" and "influence the regulatory expectations for every large generative AI system used in the EU." "OpenAI already has risk-management obligations under the AI Act, but the DSA could widen the scope," she said. The widened scrutiny will also apply to Roblox, a gaming platform that lets people build their own games and share them with others, and Reddit, the popular online forum. The designations come as the EU has stepped up regulatory enforcement against the world's biggest digital platforms, including many American ones, despite strong U.S. pushback and threats of retaliation. It recently told TikTok, one of the about 30 other listed platforms, to change what it deemed its addictive design or face heavy fines. And last year it hit Elon Musk's social media platform X with a 120-million-euro (US$138 million) fine for breaching transparency obligations and other violations.