BRUSSELS – The European Commission has officially tightened regulation of the digital market, recognizing the ChatGPT chatbot as a search engine under the Digital Services Act (DSA). At the same time, the Reddit and Roblox platforms have been added to the registry of "very large online platforms" (VLOPs). All three companies have four months to meet strict user safety requirements, otherwise they face multi-million turnover fines.
Decision based on scale and functionality
According to the regulator's statement, all three services have surpassed the threshold of 45 million active users in the European Union. This indicator automatically places them in the category of entities subject to the strictest online safety regime in the EU. Brussels is confident that such measures fully correspond to the scale of influence these platforms have on European society.
ChatGPT drew particular attention from the European Commission. The regulator concluded that since the AI-based chatbot is capable of retrieving and delivering results in real time from the internet, it effectively functions as a search engine, not just as a generative platform. In the case of Reddit and Roblox, the key classification factor was their architecture, which allows users to mass-produce content and share it publicly.
Four months to transform business processes
From the moment of official notification, OpenAI, Reddit and Roblox have four months to implement a series of mandatory measures. Among the key requirements:
- Conducting annual assessments of systemic risks related to public safety, the spread of illegal content, and the protection of minors.
- Analyzing and mitigating the negative impact of the platforms on users' mental and physical well-being.
- Undergoing independent external audits.
- Providing regulatory authorities with full access to necessary data for monitoring compliance.
Financial risks and precedents
The price of non-compliance with DSA rules is extremely high. Violators face fines of up to 6% of the company's annual global turnover. For OpenAI, whose revenue is growing rapidly, such a sanction could be quite significant.
The European Commission has already proven its willingness to apply these measures in practice. To date, the total number of platforms and search engines subject to the strictest level of regulation in the EU has reached 28. The total amount of fines already imposed is about 870 million euros. Among the largest precedents:
- €550 million for AliExpress (July 2026) for insufficient measures to curb the sale of illegal and counterfeit goods;
- €200 million for Temu (May 2026) for similar violations;
- €120 million for platform X (December 2025) for shortcomings in content moderation and lack of transparency.
Geopolitical dimension
The new restrictions intensify transatlantic tensions in the sphere of digital regulation. All three companies that have come under direct oversight are American. Previously, the administration of Donald Trump has already characterized such punitive sanctions against US companies as a "new form of economic extortion" and has not ruled out introducing retaliatory measures against countries applying such rules. Experts believe that with the expansion of the list of supervised services, Washington's rhetoric may become even harsher.
Conclusion
Brussels' decision marks an important milestone in the regulation of artificial intelligence and social platforms. The EU consistently demonstrates that the innovative status of a technology does not absolve its developers from responsibility for information hygiene and the safety of millions of users. Now the ball is in the court of OpenAI, Reddit, and Roblox: they must choose between costly adaptation of their algorithms and business models to European standards or the risk of facing unprecedented financial losses.
