The European Commission announced on August 31 that it has designated ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox under the Digital Services Act, the bloc’s sweeping law for online platforms. ChatGPT will be treated as a very large online search engine, while Reddit and Roblox will be classified as very large online platforms. The designations subject all three American services to the most stringent tier of EU regulation.
The practical effect arrives in stages. Once the designations take effect, the Commission gains formal investigation powers, allowing it to assess how each service works and how its systems behave, from recommendation algorithms to content moderation to risk management. The Commission said it will cooperate with the Irish regulator for ChatGPT and Reddit and with the Dutch regulator for Roblox, a division of labor that reflects where the companies have their EU headquarters.
The DSA draws a line between ordinary platforms and very large ones, defined by the number of active users in the EU. Companies above the threshold face obligations that smaller rivals do not: regular risk assessments, audits of their systems, transparency reports and cooperation with regulators who suspect systemic problems. The designation of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot rather than a traditional search engine, is notable because the law’s categories were written before AI products became mainstream, and regulators have had to decide how to fit them in.
For OpenAI, the designation moves the company into a category it has worked to avoid: it is now formally a systemically relevant service in Europe, subject to rules designed for the largest gatekeepers. The practical difference is not immediate, but the legal status is. A chatbot that answers questions is not a feed that ranks content in the traditional sense, and regulators will now have formal authority to decide which of the DSA’s obligations apply to it and how. The company has argued that AI products deserve tailored treatment, and it has been in active discussions with EU officials about how the DSA applies. The Commission’s decision suggests those discussions have not produced a carve-out, though the detail of which obligations apply to a chatbot remains to be worked out in practice.
For Reddit, the designation lands at a delicate moment. The company has spent years repositioning itself as a data-rich platform whose user discussions are valuable to AI developers, and it has signed licensing deals with AI companies for access to its content. Being classified as a very large platform adds regulatory obligations on top of that strategy, and it gives EU authorities formal power to examine how Reddit’s systems rank, recommend and moderate the content that AI companies pay to license.
For Roblox, the designation brings the platform’s treatment of younger users under closer official scrutiny. Roblox is popular with children and teenagers, and EU regulators have been focused on how platforms handle minors, from age verification to default privacy settings. The Dutch regulator, which supervises the platform, will now have formal tools to examine those issues, and the designation gives the Commission a route into questions about game-like platforms that have been hard to reach under older rules.
The three designations follow a pattern the Commission has established over the past year, applying the DSA’s top tier to a widening circle of platforms: major social networks, marketplaces and now AI services and gaming platforms. The expansion reflects a regulatory philosophy that systemic risk, not company size or sector, determines the level of oversight. European officials have said the goal is to make the largest platforms accountable for the harms their systems can amplify, whether those harms are disinformation, illegal content or the manipulation of minors.
The companies’ responses differed. OpenAI said it is committed to complying with EU law and will work with the Commission on implementation. Reddit said it welcomes clear rules and is reviewing the designation’s implications. Roblox said it takes the safety of its users seriously and will cooperate with regulators. None of the three announced changes to its products, and all are expected to have the right to challenge the designations before the EU’s courts, a route other platforms have used to slow the application of the DSA.
The practical consequences will take months to become visible. The Commission must first spell out what it wants to investigate, and the companies must respond with data and documentation. The Irish regulator, which has limited resources and a growing workload, will handle the day-to-day supervision of ChatGPT and Reddit. For the three American companies, the designation means that whatever else happens in their EU operations, a new set of obligations is now attached to how they run their services, and a new set of officials will be reading their risk assessments.
