ChatGPT faces tougher rules under EU online safety regime

The European Commission just put ChatGPT in the same regulatory weight class as Google. On August 31, 2026, the Commission designated OpenAI’s flagship product as a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE) under the Digital Services Act, making it the first generative AI chatbot to receive that classification. The designation means ChatGPT will face the EU’s most demanding set of online safety rules, the same kind of oversight previously reserved for big search engines and social media platforms. OpenAI now has until the end of December 2026 to comply. Why ChatGPT got the label The DSA’s threshold for triggering elevated oversight is 45 million average monthly active users in the EU. ChatGPT blew past that number. OpenAI reported approximately 159.1 million average monthly EU users for the six-month period ending March 31, 2026. That figure represents a sharp jump from earlier self-reported numbers of around 120.4 million in early 2026, a roughly 32% increase in a matter of months. What makes this classification novel is the “hybrid service” framing. ChatGPT doesn’t look like a traditional search engine. It doesn’t serve up a list of blue links. But because it can respond to user pr...