EU eyes DSA label for ChatGPT

The European Commission is checking whether ChatGPT should be put under the Digital Services Act’s toughest tier for giant online services. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) (y94.com) A Commission spokesperson said on April 10 that OpenAI had published user numbers for ChatGPT above the law’s 45 million-user threshold. Reuters reported the Commission is now analyzing how ChatGPT fits under the rules. (enterpriseai.economictimes.indiatimes.com) (y94.com) OpenAI’s own European Union disclosure says ChatGPT search averaged about 120.4 million monthly active recipients in the bloc for the six months ending September 30, 2025. The company says that figure was calculated for Digital Services Act compliance and covers ChatGPT search, not every ChatGPT use. (help.openai.com) The Digital Services Act draws its line at more than 45 million monthly users in the European Union for “very large online platforms” and “very large online search engines.” Once the Commission designates a service, it gets four months to comply. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) Those bigger services face extra duties beyond the baseline rulebook. The Commission says they must assess systemic risks, report them, and take steps that can include changing design choices, recommendation systems, and internal compliance resources. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) The immediate fight is about classification, not just size. Reuters reported on April 10 that the Commission was examining whether ChatGPT should count as a large online search engine, while earlier reporting and political debate in Brussels also raised the possibility of treating it as a very large online platform. (y94.com) (techpolicy.press) That distinction matters because ChatGPT is not a standard search box or a standard social platform. OpenAI describes ChatGPT search as a feature that lets the chatbot pull live information from the web inside chat responses, on chatgpt.com and in its apps. (openai.com) (help.openai.com) Brussels has been wrestling with that hybrid design for months. Euractiv reported in October 2025 that the Commission was assessing the service case by case after OpenAI’s search user numbers cleared the threshold, and members of the European Parliament formally pressed the Commission on December 4, 2025 about whether ChatGPT should be designated as a platform or a search engine. (euractiv.com) (europarl.europa.eu) OpenAI has already built some of the basic Digital Services Act plumbing for Europe. Its European terms name OpenAI Ireland Ltd. for users in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, and its help center lists a designated point of contact for authorities under Article 11 of the law. (openai.com) (help.openai.com) The next step is the Commission’s designation call. If Brussels decides ChatGPT search belongs in the very large category, OpenAI would move from publishing user counts to meeting the Digital Services Act’s highest level of supervision. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) (enterpriseai.economictimes.indiatimes.com)