{"id":376517,"date":"2026-08-31T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=376517"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:44:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:44:05","slug":"chatgpt-is-now-classed-as-a-very-large-online-search-engine-in-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/chatgpt-is-now-classed-as-a-very-large-online-search-engine-in-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"ChatGPT is now classed as a Very Large Online Search Engine in the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission has formally classified ChatGPT<\/a> as a Very Large Online Search Engine<\/strong> in the EU. That brings OpenAI\u2019s chatbot under the toughest Digital Services Act<\/a> rules for the first time. The Commission says the service cleared the 45 million-user threshold for VLOSE status by a wide margin, reaching more than 159 million monthly active users in the bloc by the end of March 2026. And because ChatGPT now mixes web search with direct answers, regulators see it as closer to a search engine than a simple messaging app or software tool.<\/p>\n

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OpenAI now has four months<\/strong> under the Digital Services Act to comply, which likely puts the deadline at the end of November 2026. It will have to turn over risk assessments and transparency reports, keep a public ad archive, undergo independent audits, and give the European Commission and vetted researchers access to data. The list of concerns is broad: illegal content, risks to minors, public security, and the wider social effects of the service all fall within scope.<\/p>\n\n

If you use ChatGPT regularly, keep an eye on this. You probably won\u2019t see the service vanish or change overnight, but EU regulators are about to get a much clearer view<\/strong> of how ChatGPT works, what risks it creates, and what safeguards are actually in place. The Commission\u2019s decision could become a landmark test case for generative AI in Europe. It also sets up the next fights: how much access regulators should get to sensitive proprietary data, whether OpenAI challenges the move if the Commission pushes too far, whether compliance here becomes a template for other AI services, and the threat of fines worth up to 6% of global annual turnover if OpenAI doesn\u2019t comply.<\/p>\n\n

For now, ChatGPT remains available<\/a> across the EU on the web and through its iPhone and Android apps.<\/p>\n

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\r\n \"Microsoft\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n Microsoft Copilot<\/span>\r\n Download<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
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The European Commission has formally classified ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine in the EU. That brings OpenAI\u2019s chatbot under the toughest Digital Services Act rules for the first time. The Commission says the service cleared the 45 million-user threshold for VLOSE status by a wide margin, reaching more than 159 million monthly … Continue reading “ChatGPT is now classed as a Very Large Online Search Engine in the EU”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9340,"featured_media":376516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[6771],"class_list":["post-376517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","content-category-ai"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376518,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376517\/revisions\/376518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376517"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=376517"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=376517"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=376517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}