EU weighs ChatGPT oversight

The European Commission is assessing whether ChatGPT should be regulated under the European Union’s toughest Digital Services Act rules after OpenAI reported user numbers above the legal threshold. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu, help.openai.com, legal.economictimes.indiatimes.com) A European Commission spokesperson said on April 10, 2026 that officials were analyzing whether ChatGPT qualifies as a “large online platform” under the law. Reuters reported the review after OpenAI disclosed European Union usage data above the benchmark used for extra oversight. (legal.economictimes.indiatimes.com, wallstreetobserver.com) OpenAI says that for the six months ending September 30, 2025, “ChatGPT search” had about 120.4 million average monthly active recipients in the European Union. The Digital Services Act uses a 45 million user threshold for the bloc’s biggest platforms and search engines. (help.openai.com, digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) The Digital Services Act is the European Union law that sets online safety and transparency rules for digital services. The largest designated services face added duties, including annual risk assessments, outside audits, data access for vetted researchers, and stronger oversight by the Commission. (eur-lex.europa.eu, digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) That matters because ChatGPT is not a social network in the usual sense, and the Commission said services involving large language models are assessed case by case. A decision to classify it under the Digital Services Act would test how a law written for major online intermediaries applies to general-purpose artificial intelligence assistants. (legal.economictimes.indiatimes.com, eur-lex.europa.eu) The Commission has already designated major services including Amazon Store, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Google Search, and Bing under the Digital Services Act. Those first designations were announced on April 25, 2023. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) The threshold itself is not new. In a December 2025 review, the Commission said the 45 million average monthly active recipient benchmark remained “fit-for-purpose” for deciding which services should face the strictest obligations. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) OpenAI’s own disclosures show how fast the numbers moved. A help page indexed by search results listed about 41.3 million average monthly active recipients in the European Union for the period ending March 31, 2025, below the threshold later exceeded in the September 2025 filing. (help.openai.com, help.openai.com) If Brussels decides ChatGPT belongs in that top tier, OpenAI would move from publishing user counts to meeting the same heavier compliance regime that already applies to the European Union’s biggest digital platforms and search engines. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu, eur-lex.europa.eu)