What It Means for ChatGPT to Be Placed Under the EU's Strictest DSA Regulatory Tier

EU Tightens Regulation: ChatGPT Officially Enters DSA's Strictest Tier

According to international media reports, OpenAI's ChatGPT and gaming platform Roblox will be designated under the strictest regulatory tier of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) — the rules framework for "Very Large Online Platforms" (VLOPs). This marks a significant milestone as generative AI tools officially enter the EU's systematic regulatory oversight, signaling yet another important shift in the global AI governance landscape.

The DSA Legal Framework: From the E-Commerce Directive to Tiered Platform Governance

To understand the significance of this development, we first need to understand the institutional background of the DSA. The EU Digital Services Act officially came into force in November 2022 and became fully applicable to all digital service providers operating in the EU from February 2024. The DSA replaced the two-decade-old E-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC) and established a tiered platform responsibility system. Based on platform scale and type, the DSA classifies services into four tiers: Intermediary Services, Hosting Services, Online Platforms, and Very Large Online Platforms/Search Engines (VLOPs/VLOSEs). The higher the tier, the heavier the compliance obligations.

When a product's monthly active users exceed 45 million (approximately 10% of the EU population), the EU considers it to have significant societal influence, triggering the VLOP designation threshold. This threshold is designed to identify platforms with systemic influence over public discourse and information ecosystems. ChatGPT's user base has long surpassed this threshold, making its inclusion in the regulatory framework virtually inevitable.

As for Roblox, an immersive gaming platform with a massive youth user base, it has long attracted scrutiny over content safety and minor protection issues. Roblox has over 70 million daily active users, with approximately 40% under the age of 13. The platform allows users to create their own games and virtual experiences — an openness that fosters creativity while simultaneously presenting serious content safety challenges. In recent years, multiple investigative reports have identified issues on the Roblox platform including inappropriate content targeting minors, virtual currency gambling, grooming, and excessive commercialization. In 2024, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also launched an investigation into Roblox's children's privacy protection practices. Being designated as a VLOP means Roblox will need to conduct specialized systemic risk assessments for minor protection and implement stricter age verification and content filtering mechanisms.

What the Strictest DSA Tier Means for ChatGPT

Systemic Risk Assessments and Third-Party Audits

Platforms designated as VLOPs bear compliance responsibilities far exceeding those of ordinary platforms. This includes conducting regular "systemic risk assessments" to identify potential harms their services may pose to users and society — such as the spread of misinformation, dissemination of illegal content, and impacts on minors' mental health. Platforms must submit these assessment reports and undergo independent third-party audits.

Specifically, Article 34 of the DSA explicitly stipulates four dimensions across which VLOPs must conduct systemic risk assessments: first, the risk of illegal content spreading through the platform; second, actual or foreseeable impacts on fundamental rights (such as freedom of expression, privacy, and non-discrimination); third, impacts on democratic processes, public safety, and public health; and fourth, impacts on gender-based violence and minor protection. Assessments are not one-time exercises — they must be conducted at least annually and updated promptly when significant risk changes occur. Article 37 requires VLOPs to undergo annual compliance audits by independent auditing organizations recognized by the European Commission, with audit reports submitted to the EU Digital Services Coordinator within 30 days.

Algorithmic Transparency and Generative AI Content Governance

The DSA also requires VLOPs to maintain transparency in their algorithmic recommendation mechanisms and open data interfaces to regulators and researchers for external scrutiny of their operational logic. For generative AI like ChatGPT, this means OpenAI may need to provide clearer explanations about how the model generates content, handles harmful information, and prevents misuse.

Penalties for Non-Compliance: Fines Up to 6% of Global Revenue

You might not have noticed, but the DSA's penalty mechanisms are extremely severe. For non-compliant platforms, the EU can impose fines of up to 6% of their global annual turnover; in cases of serious and repeated violations, platforms may even be banned from operating within the EU. This "heavy penalty" mechanism gives the regulation real deterrent power.

Why ChatGPT's VLOP Designation Is a Landmark Moment

Previously, DSA regulation primarily focused on traditional digital platforms such as social media, e-commerce, and search engines — including Meta, Google, TikTok, and Amazon. Including ChatGPT means the EU is, for the first time, treating a purely generative AI product as a "platform" requiring systemic governance.

The Legal Breakthrough of Generative AI as a "Platform"

Designating ChatGPT as an "online platform" is not without legal controversy. Traditionally, platforms regulated under the DSA are primarily "intermediaries" of information rather than "producers" — meaning platforms themselves don't produce content but provide distribution channels for user-generated content (UGC). What makes ChatGPT unique is that it is both a content generator and an information transmitter — every response it generates can potentially be viewed as an act of "publication." By bringing it into the VLOP framework, the EU is essentially confirming a new paradigm at the legal level: when AI-generated content (AIGC) is distributed at scale, its societal impact is equivalent to that of user-generated content platforms, and therefore similar governance logic should apply. This designation also sets the stage for future legal discussions about how to define AI systems' "editorial responsibility" and "publisher liability."

This move reflects an evolution in regulatory thinking: AI is no longer viewed as merely a technical tool, but is treated as a "content intermediary" with societal influence. Generative AI can produce text, images, and other content at scale, and its potential impact on information ecosystems, public discourse, and even public safety is no less significant than that of traditional social platforms.

The Dual Regulatory Net of DSA and AI Act

On the other hand, this also complements the EU's ongoing AI Act. The EU AI Act officially came into force in August 2024 and is the world's first comprehensive legislation specifically targeting AI. It adopts a risk-based four-tier classification system: unacceptable risk (such as social scoring systems — directly prohibited), high risk (such as AI used in recruitment and law enforcement — requiring strict compliance), limited risk (such as chatbots — requiring transparency obligations), and minimal risk (such as spam filters — no additional requirements). General-purpose AI models (GPAI) like the GPT series have dedicated provisions requiring technical documentation, copyright law compliance, and disclosure of training data summaries.

The DSA focuses on platform responsibility and content governance, while the AI Act focuses on risk classification and compliance requirements for AI systems themselves. The relationship between the two is complementary rather than substitutive: the DSA regulates AI's societal impact from the "platform" dimension, while the AI Act regulates AI's technical safety from the "system" dimension. The overlay of these two legal frameworks constitutes the EU's "dual regulatory net" for AI, meaning OpenAI must simultaneously meet safety assessment requirements at the AI system level and content governance requirements at the platform level.

Far-Reaching Impact on the Global AI Industry

OpenAI's Compliance Costs Will Rise Significantly

For companies like OpenAI, being placed on the VLOP list means investing substantial resources in building compliance teams, conducting risk assessments, and cooperating with audits. While these costs may be manageable for well-funded tech giants, they could further raise entry barriers in the AI industry, creating a "regulatory moat."

The Brussels Effect: A Global Regulatory Benchmark

The EU has long been regarded as the global "standard setter" for digital regulation. Like GDPR, its DSA is likely to produce a "Brussels Effect" — where companies, seeking to unify compliance costs, tend to apply the EU's high standards across global markets.

The "Brussels Effect" concept was systematically articulated by Columbia University Law Professor Anu Bradford in her 2020 book of the same name. Its core logic is: when an economy's market is large enough and its regulatory standards strict enough, multinational companies — motivated by reducing the operational costs of maintaining multiple compliance systems — will proactively extend the strictest standards to global markets. GDPR is the most典型 example — despite being EU law, most global tech companies have adopted its privacy protection requirements as the baseline for product design. Apple's global privacy labels and Google's cookie consent framework are direct products of the Brussels Effect.

This means the EU's regulation of ChatGPT may ultimately benefit or constrain users worldwide, compelling OpenAI to raise transparency and content safety standards on a global scale.

Finding the Balance Between Innovation and Regulation

However, excessively stringent regulation has also raised industry concerns. Critics argue that burdensome compliance obligations could slow the pace of AI innovation, particularly disadvantaging startups. Finding the balance between safeguarding user safety and encouraging technological progress will remain an ongoing challenge for regulators in the EU and globally.

Conclusion: AI Compliance Capability Becomes a Core Competitive Advantage

The inclusion of ChatGPT and Roblox under the EU's strictest platform regulation is a microcosm of AI governance reaching maturity. It sends a clear signal: no matter how cutting-edge AI technology may be, once its scale and influence reach a certain level, it must bear commensurate social responsibility. For the entire AI industry, compliance capability is gradually becoming a competitive dimension equally important as technical capability. In the future, we are likely to see more AI products redefining their roles and boundaries within regulatory frameworks.