EU puts ChatGPT in the same regulatory bucket as Google Search and Bing

The European Commission on August 31 formally designated ChatGPT a very large online search engine (VLOSE) under the Digital Services Act, placing OpenAI’s assistant alongside Google Search and Microsoft Bing, until now the only two services in that category. Reddit and Roblox were designated very large online platforms in the same decision, bringing the number of services under the Commission’s direct DSA supervision to 28.

The designation rests on user figures the companies themselves reported. OpenAI declared an average of 159.1 million monthly active recipients in the EU over the six months to March 31, 2026, more than three times the 45 million threshold. Reddit reported around 57.2 million and Roblox roughly 46.6 million. Day-to-day oversight of ChatGPT will sit with Ireland’s Coimisiún na Meán, since OpenAI’s European entity is established in Dublin.

Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, said the three services “will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability” in the EU. OpenAI did not comment on the decision at the time of the announcement.

Why it matters

For the search industry, the decision settles a question Brussels had wrestled with for over a year: whether a chatbot that answers queries with web-grounded results is a search engine in law. The answer is yes, and it arrives just as OpenAI is scaling an advertising business inside ChatGPT. VLOSE status triggers the DSA’s advertising provisions, including per-ad disclosure of who paid and why a user saw it, and a public ad repository retained for a year. Marketers buying ChatGPT inventory in Europe should expect the same transparency exposure they already accept on Google and Meta.

The compliance clock is four months, so OpenAI must have its first systemic-risk assessment, independent audit arrangements and data-access channels for regulators and vetted researchers in place by the end of December 2026. The Commission can fine non-compliant services up to 6% of global annual turnover, and it has shown willingness to use that power, with penalties against X and Temu over the past year.

What’s next

The designation also feeds into the separate Digital Markets Act process, where the Commission has ordered Google to license search data to rival engines, a category that now explicitly includes AI chatbots. Search Engine Journal notes ChatGPT’s new status could strengthen OpenAI’s case for access to that dataset. Whether Brussels next turns to Perplexity or Google’s own Gemini app will depend on the user numbers those services report in their next DSA filings.