EU Considers Imposing Tougher Rules on ChatGPT

The European Commission is considering applying stricter rules on ChatGPT. The enforcement would be under the regulator’s Digital Services Act (DSA), reflecting the AI company’s growing user base.

The EC apparently stated it was assessing whether it should designate the platform as a large online search engine after OpenAI published user numbers for ChatGPT above 45 million, the threshold for falling under the scope of DSA. In line with existing EC requirements, OpenAI told the regulator that ChatGPT’s search offering had an average of 120.4 million monthly active users in the European Union over the six months ending September 2025.

EC spokesman Thomas Regnier said that the EC was assessing the information, with large language models potentially being subject to DSA rules, but it would decide on a case-by-case basis. Should the EC decide to designate OpenAI as a large online search engine, OpenAI would be required to conduct independent risk assessments and mitigation measures, increase transparency and algorithmic accountability, undergo external audits, provide access to data for regulators, and implement stronger content moderation processes.