EU puts ChatGPT in toughest DSA tier

The European Commission said Monday that ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox will be classified as “very large online platforms” under the EU’s Digital Services Act, its landmark online-safety law. All three services passed 45 million monthly users in the EU, the threshold that triggers the designation.

The classification adds obligations: removing illegal content, protecting minors’ privacy and security, and submitting to the DSA’s heaviest compliance and audit regime. Noncompliance can bring fines up to 6% of global revenue. The companies have until the end of December to meet the new requirements. “ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union, in line with their large impact on our citizens and society,” said the EU’s tech chief, Henna Virkkunen. An OpenAI spokesperson said the company was preparing to meet the requirements; Roblox called the milestone something it was “proud” to reach first among gaming platforms.

The pattern behind one designation

This is the DSA’s clearest move yet into generative AI, following an existing investigation into X’s Grok chatbot under the same law. It also lands alongside separate EU scrutiny of Google’s AI Overviews under competition rules, and amid US pressure on Brussels over enforcement against American tech firms. For anyone building on top of ChatGPT, through the API, plugins, or GPTs, the platform underneath you is entering a compliance cycle with a hard December deadline and real fines attached, the kind of regulatory surface that has already reshaped how OpenAI expands access to the model in new markets. It follows a string of EU actions against AI companies this year, including the bloc’s Article 50 transparency guidelines for AI systems. Expect product and policy changes in the EU specifically as OpenAI works toward that deadline, not just legal filings.