The European Commission designated ChatGPT a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE) under the Digital Services Act today, Monday 31 August, alongside Reddit and Roblox, which it designated as Very Large Online Platforms. All three declared reaching at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU, the threshold that triggers the label, and now have four months, until the end of December, to comply with the DSA’s additional obligations.
A Hybrid Service, By the Commission’s Own Definition
The Commission’s press release explains the ChatGPT VLOSE designation directly: “ChatGPT is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can engage with and respond to users’ prompts and queries, including by searching the web. Hence, ChatGPT is a hybrid service that qualifies as an online search engine under the DSA.” That wording puts a chatbot in the same regulatory category as the web’s other search engines, seven days after ChatGPT Ads started serving across 31 European markets, per elsop’s 24 August report. The Commission’s announcement also notes it has now designated 28 very large online platforms and search engines under the DSA in total.
What Is a VLOSE?
A Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE) is a search engine the European Commission designates under the Digital Services Act when it reaches at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU; ChatGPT and the two platforms designated alongside it declared they meet that threshold. Designation adds obligations such as assessing and mitigating systemic risks stemming from the service and its algorithmic systems related to the dissemination of illegal content, the negative effects on minors, users’ physical and mental well-being, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security, per the Commission’s announcement. The Commission is competent to supervise compliance, working with Coimisiún na Meán for ChatGPT and Reddit and with the Authority for Consumers and Markets for Roblox, the Digital Services Coordinators for Ireland and the Netherlands, where the services are established.
The Number Behind the Designation
OpenAI’s own DSA disclosure page states that ChatGPT search had “approximately 159.1 million average monthly active recipients in the European Union” for the six-month period ending 31 March 2026, more than three times the 45 million threshold. The figure covers ChatGPT search specifically, OpenAI’s term for “our online search features”, not ChatGPT as a whole. OpenAI’s page adds its own caveat: the average “should not be relied upon or used for other purposes” beyond DSA compliance. OpenAI’s disclosure is the source for the 159.1 million figure; the Commission’s release states only that the three services “declared that they reach at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU”.
Ad Rules Under Article 39
Designation as a VLOSE that presents ads triggers Article 39 of the DSA regulation. The regulation text requires providers to “compile and make publicly available in a specific section of their online interface, through a searchable and reliable tool that allows multicriteria queries and through application programming interfaces, a repository” holding the information the regulation specifies for each ad, kept for as long as an ad runs and for one year after it was last presented. The repository cannot contain personal data about who saw an ad. ChatGPT Ads went live in Europe on 24 August with buying routed through OpenAI’s Ads Solutions team and named agency partners rather than a self-serve Ads Manager, as elsop reported at the time; our 16 August report found no EEA market listed in OpenAI’s Ads Manager when OpenAI told EEA users ads might appear. Article 39(1), quoted above, keys the obligation to ads presented on the provider’s own interface; it does not address the channel advertisers buy through.
Compliance is due by the end of December, four months from today’s notification; the ad repository sits among the additional obligations the DSA places on designated VLOPs and VLOSEs. The Commission gains investigative powers to assess the functionalities behind the service and, where applicable, any related system, and will supervise compliance in cooperation with the national regulators named above.
