EU weighs ChatGPT under DSA
The European Commission is reviewing whether ChatGPT should be regulated as a large online platform or search engine under the Digital Services Act. (thehindu.com) If so, that classification would layer DSA platform obligations on top of AI-specific rules already under discussion in Brussels. (pymnts.com)
Brussels is deciding whether ChatGPT should be treated like a very large search engine under the European Union’s Digital Services Act. (reuters.com) The European Commission said on Friday, April 10, that it was analyzing ChatGPT after OpenAI reported user numbers above the law’s threshold. OpenAI said ChatGPT search reached about 120.4 million average monthly active recipients in the European Union over the six months ending September 2025. (reuters.com) (openai.com) Under the Digital Services Act, services with more than 45 million users in the bloc can be designated as very large online platforms or very large online search engines. The Commission says those services face the law’s “most stringent rules.” (ec.europa.eu) The fight is partly about what ChatGPT is. OpenAI’s filing to European regulators covers “ChatGPT search,” and Reuters reported that the Commission is assessing whether that product fits the search-engine category rather than a general platform label. (openai.com) (reuters.com) If Brussels designates ChatGPT, OpenAI would face the same layer of Digital Services Act duties already applied to the biggest platforms and search engines. Those duties include annual risk assessments, independent audits, public reporting, and stronger transparency around how the service operates. (ec.europa.eu 1) (ec.europa.eu 2) (ec.europa.eu 3) The Commission has already used the law to supervise a list of designated giants, including major platforms and search engines, and it publishes that list on its Digital Strategy site. A ChatGPT designation would extend that regime to a generative artificial intelligence product that answers questions in a chat box instead of a link list. (ec.europa.eu) European regulators have also started spelling out how the Digital Services Act applies to election risks and generative artificial intelligence. Commission guidelines say platforms and search engines should adopt election-specific mitigation steps tied to generative artificial intelligence systems. (ec.europa.eu) This review lands alongside the European Union’s separate artificial intelligence rulebook, which is aimed at how artificial intelligence systems are built and deployed. The Digital Services Act is different: it governs how online services are run, supervised, and made accountable to users and regulators. (ec.europa.eu) OpenAI has not publicly gone beyond confirming its Digital Services Act user disclosure, and the Commission said the assessment is still underway. The immediate question is no longer whether ChatGPT is big enough for Brussels to look at, but whether Brussels decides it belongs inside the bloc’s toughest online-service category. (openai.com) (reuters.com)
