April 10 (Reuters) - OpenAI and its chatbot ChatGPT is set to be classified as a very large search engine and fall under the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), meaning it faces tighter
EU weighing tighter regulation for OpenAI under Digital Services Act
European Commission Evaluates ChatGPT User Numbers and DSA Implications
(Corrects to search engine instead of platform in paragraph 1)
Commission's Assessment of ChatGPT
April 10 (Reuters) - The European Commission on Friday said it was analysing whether OpenAI's ChatGPT should be considered a large online search engine under the rules of the Digital Services Act (DSA), after it reported user numbers above the threshold.
"OpenAI has published user numbers for ChatGPT above the 45 million DSA threshold for designation," Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said.
"The Commission services are currently assessing this information."
Potential Inclusion of Large Language Models
Regnier said Large Language Models could potentially be in the scope of the DSA, but that this had to be analysed on a "case-by-case basis."
Media Reports and Regulatory Impact
German newspaper Handelsblatt reported earlier on Friday that ChatGPT would fall under the DSA, meaning it would face tighter regulation.
OpenAI's Response and User Data
OpenAI said it had published the average number of monthly active recipients for ChatGPT search in line with existing obligations, adding this referred to users in the European Union over the past six months.
According to data supplied by OpenAI, ChatGPT search had approximately 120.4 million average monthly active users in the EU over the six-month period to end-September 2025.
Article Credits
(Writing by Matthias Williams and Bart Meijer, Editing by Linda Pasquini, Kirsten Donovan)
