What the VLOSE designation means and why it applies to ChatGPT
The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) classifies digital services into categories according to their size and impact. The VLOSE (Very Large Online Search Engine) category applies when a service exceeds 45 million monthly active users in the EU. ChatGPT reported 159.1 million European users — more than three times the threshold. Reddit and Roblox were designated VLOPs (Very Large Online Platforms) at the same time.
The designation triggers specific obligations with four months to comply: sharing data with the European Commission and national authorities, undergoing annual independent audits, giving researchers access, and keeping a public ad repository with at least one year of history. Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's executive vice-president, summed it up: "ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox will be subject to a higher level of scrutiny."
OpenAI's ad business: $1 billion and the regulatory complication
OpenAI announced that its Ads Manager already generates an annualized $1 billion in advertising revenue, reached in under 200 days since launch. The service is available in Europe, India, the Middle East and North Africa. Personalization is based on "the user's broader ChatGPT experience" — which means conversation history informs ad targeting.
That's the regulatory knot: the DSA requires the ad repository to include the ad's content, who paid for it, when it ran, the targeting parameters used and its actual reach. For advertising that uses a user's conversation history as a targeting signal, meeting that transparency requirement is technically complex and could reveal how OpenAI processes private information.
The unresolved irony: search engine or platform?
Classifying ChatGPT as a search engine rather than a platform creates an interesting regulatory gap. The DSA's strictest advertising restrictions apply to platforms, not search engines. Yet people share far more intimate information with a chatbot than with a traditional search engine — their problems, their doubts, their intentions. That asymmetry between the regulatory category and real user behavior is the problem regulators will have to solve.
OpenAI's direct supervisor will be Ireland's digital services coordinator (where OpenAI has its European headquarters), following the same model applied to Meta and Google. It's the first application of the DSA to a generative AI system — and the precedent it sets will determine how Google Gemini and others are regulated if they cross the 45-million-user threshold.
What this implies for businesses outside Europe that use ChatGPT
For businesses in the Dominican Republic, Latin America or the US, European regulation doesn't apply directly, but it signals the direction of the global market. Companies that integrate ChatGPT into their operations should prepare for scenarios in which generative AI is treated as regulated infrastructure, with transparency, audit and data-access obligations. What Europe regulates today, other markets tend to adopt within 2 to 4 years.
The designation also confirms that 2026 is the year generative AI definitively moved from experimental promise to regulated business. For companies that depend on these tools, European regulatory stability can be a positive: more obligations for OpenAI mean more predictability about how it will use your data and your customers' data.
Frequently asked questions
What is the DSA and does it apply outside Europe?
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is the European Union's digital services law. It applies directly to services operating in the EU, regardless of where they're based. Although it doesn't directly bind companies elsewhere, large AI providers adjust their global policies to comply with Europe, which indirectly affects every user.
Can ChatGPT keep working the same way in Europe after the designation?
Yes, it can keep operating. The designation doesn't ban anything — it imposes transparency, audit and data-sharing obligations. OpenAI has four months to implement the required changes, and the service remains available during that period.
Does this affect how ChatGPT uses my data if I'm outside Europe?
Indirectly, yes. The data-handling policies OpenAI adopts to comply with the DSA tend to be applied globally to simplify operations. European regulation has historically improved data protection for users worldwide, not just in the EU.
Will other AIs like Gemini or Claude face the same regulation?
They will if they exceed 45 million monthly active users in the EU. Google Gemini is the most likely next candidate. Anthropic's Claude hasn't reported numbers that put it at that threshold, but the regulatory trend will eventually reach all the large models.