The European Commission has placed OpenAI's ChatGPT, Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) and Roblox (NYSE: RBLX) into the toughest regulation tier of its Digital Services Act (DSA), effective Monday, August 31, 2026.

ChatGPT was classified as a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE), while Reddit and Roblox were added to the Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) category. The new designations for the US-based companies followed the European regulator's acknowledgment that they had grown large enough, particularly within the bloc, to be held to a higher standard. The DSA, which entered fully into force across the EU in 2024, regulates online intermediaries offering services in the bloc regardless of where they are headquartered, and its heaviest obligations are reserved for the largest services.

What the EU's 'very large' designation means

OpenAI, Reddit and Roblox now have four months to demonstrate to Brussels that they have sufficient tools in place to handle risks involving minors, elections and public safety. Failure to pass that review could result in fines of up to 6% of global revenue.

The EU's "very large" designation is set at a threshold of 45 million average monthly users, with the level of supervision a platform faces depending on where it falls relative to the DSA's benchmark.

Reddit reported 57.2 million EU users in July, while Roblox counted 46.6 million users in the same month. The minors-related obligations carry particular weight for Roblox, whose user base skews young, and for Reddit, whose largely user-moderated forums have drawn regulatory attention in other jurisdictions.

ChatGPT's classification was less straightforward, given disagreements over whether the chatbot — which OpenAI said had 120 million users as of last year — should be treated as a platform or a search engine. Brussels ultimately placed it in the search engine sub-category, making it one of the first AI assistants to fall under the VLOSE regime alongside conventional search engines such as Google and Bing.

Roblox quickly expressed pride at becoming "the first gaming platform to reach this milestone in the EU." Joost Hagesteijn, the company's general manager for Europe, also invited further "constructive engagement" with the European regulator.

Very large platforms face stricter scrutiny

The European Commission now exercises direct oversight of ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox, in the same way it monitors other tech giants that have previously received the "very large" designation.

Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, wrote that the three US-based firms "will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny." She also stressed that the Commission "will not hesitate to designate any platform" that clears the threshold, and will hold such platforms accountable under its standard.

All three companies now have until the end of December 2026 to identify and address any systemic risks the DSA considers their services and algorithms to create. The current list of infractions includes:

• Propagation of illegal content
• Harm to minors
• Negative impact on users' mental and physical health
• Threats to fundamental rights
• Interference with elections and public security

The December 2026 audit represents only the first of their obligations. According to the European Commission's digital policy pages, designated services must also:

• Open their data to vetted researchers
• Submit to an independent yearly audit
• Run an internal compliance function
• Offer a version of their recommender systems that does not profile the user

Fines, appeals and a widening enforcement drive

Missing the December deadline carries a real cost. A company that fails to comply risks a penalty of up to 6% of its annual worldwide turnover, and, as legal scholar Steve Peers notes in an EU Law Analysis summary, continued breach of a Commission order can attract daily fines of as much as 5% of global turnover.

The designations themselves can be challenged, though challengers have not fared well so far. Amazon and Zalando both lost General Court cases contesting their VLOP status and have appealed to the EU's Court of Justice, according to Peers. Amazon argued the entire VLOP regime violated its right to conduct a business; the court accepted that the rules impose high costs but ruled the burden justified.

Monday's decision arrives amid a broader wave of DSA enforcement. The list of regulated services now numbers 28. In July alone, the Commission issued preliminary findings against TikTok over the safety of minors' accounts, fined AliExpress 550 million euros over counterfeit goods, and accepted a compliance plan from X.

For OpenAI, the DSA label adds a second Brussels rulebook on top of the AI Act, which already governs ChatGPT, meaning the company must now manage compliance under two distinct EU regimes with different supervisory authorities and requirements.

Source: Cryptopolitan