The EU has designated ChatGPT a very large online search engine
The European Commission gave ChatGPT the Digital Services Act's heaviest label on August 31, 2026, and put Reddit and Roblox in the platform category alongside it. The threshold is 45 million average monthly users in the EU, a number the services reported themselves. OpenAI now has four months, until January 2027, to meet the extra obligations that come with the label.
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Commission designates ChatGPT, Reddit, Roblox under Digital Services ActEuropean Commission, Digital Strategy · Original published August 31, 2026
The Commission announced on August 31, 2026 that ChatGPT counts as a Very Large Online Search Engine under the Digital Services Act. Reddit and Roblox were designated Very Large Online Platforms on the same day. All three now carry the same additional duties and the same supervision, run from Brussels rather than from a single member state.
Why ChatGPT is a search engine and not a platform
The DSA separates online platforms, where users publish content for other users, from online search engines. The Commission describes ChatGPT as an AI system that responds to users' prompts and queries, including by searching the web, and concludes that this makes it a hybrid service which qualifies as a search engine.
Reddit and Roblox land on the other side of that line. Reddit organizes user-created content into topic-based communities, and Roblox lets users publish games that other users play. Because both let people disseminate third-party content to the public, the DSA treats them as platforms.
What the threshold pulls in with it
A service earns the label once it reaches at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU. The Commission says all three declared that they meet that number. The clock then runs for four months from notification, which puts the compliance date in January 2027.
- Assess and mitigate the systemic risks that come out of the service itself and its algorithmic systems.
- The risks named in the decision are the dissemination of illegal content and negative effects on minors and on users' physical and mental well-being.
- Fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security are on the same list.
- The Commission also gains investigative powers to examine the functionality behind each service.
Who does the supervising
The Commission supervises compliance, but not alone. It works with Coimisiún na Meán for ChatGPT and Reddit, and with the Authority for Consumers and Markets for Roblox. Those two bodies are the Digital Services Coordinators for Ireland and the Netherlands, where the services are established.
None of the three was outside the DSA before this. They were already bound by the general obligations for platforms and search engines; the new label adds the tier reserved for the largest services. With this decision the Commission has designated 28 very large platforms and search engines in total.
„held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union“
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