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

EU Tightens Regulation: ChatGPT Officially Enters the Strictest DSA 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 governing "Very Large Online Platforms" (VLOPs). This development marks the moment generative AI tools officially enter the EU's systemic regulatory purview and signals yet another significant 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 event, we first need to examine the institutional context of the DSA. The EU's 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 replaces the two-decade-old E-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC) and establishes a tiered platform responsibility framework. 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 deems it to have significant societal influence, thereby triggering VLOP designation. This threshold is designed to identify platforms with systemic influence over public discourse and the information ecosystem. ChatGPT's user base has long surpassed this threshold, making its inclusion in the regulatory framework virtually inevitable.

Roblox, as an immersive gaming platform with a massive adolescent user base, has long been under scrutiny for content safety and child protection concerns. With over 70 million daily active users, approximately 40% of whom are under 13 years old, the platform allows users to create their own games and virtual experiences. This openness stimulates creativity but also poses serious content safety challenges. In recent years, multiple investigative reports have identified inappropriate content targeting minors, virtual currency gambling, social grooming, and excessive commercialization on the Roblox platform. In 2024, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also launched an investigation into Roblox's children's privacy protection practices. VLOP designation means Roblox must 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 must bear compliance responsibilities far exceeding those of ordinary platforms. This includes conducting regular "systemic risk assessments" to identify potential harms their services may cause to users and society — such as the spread of disinformation, 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 mandates that VLOPs conduct systemic risk assessments across four dimensions: first, the risk of illegal content being disseminated 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 security, and public health; and fourth, impacts on gender-based violence and the protection of minors. These assessments are not one-time exercises — they must be conducted at least annually and updated promptly when significant risk changes occur. Article 37 further 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 regarding 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, how it handles harmful information, and how it prevents misuse.

Penalties: Fines Up to 6% of Global Revenue

You might not have noticed, but the DSA's penalties 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 genuine 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 — Meta, Google, TikTok, Amazon, and the like. 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"

Classifying ChatGPT as an "online platform" is not without legal controversy. Traditionally, the platforms regulated by the DSA are primarily "intermediaries" rather than "producers" of information — that is, platforms themselves don't produce content but provide distribution channels for user-generated content (UGC). ChatGPT's uniqueness lies in the fact that it is both a content generator and an information transmitter — every response it generates can be considered an act of "publication." By including it in the VLOP framework, the EU is essentially confirming a new paradigm at the legal level: when AI-generated content (AIGC) is disseminated 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 measure reflects the evolution of regulatory thinking: AI is no longer viewed as a mere technical tool but is treated as a "content intermediary" with societal influence. Generative AI can produce text, images, and other content at massive scale, and its potential impact on the information ecosystem, public discourse, and even public safety is no less than that of traditional social platforms.

The Dual Regulatory Net of DSA and AI Act

On another front, 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 (GPAI) models 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 substitutional: 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 both laws creates 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 Implications for the Global AI Industry

OpenAI's Compliance Costs Will Rise Significantly

For companies like OpenAI, entering the VLOP list means investing substantial resources in building compliance teams, conducting risk assessments, and cooperating with audits. While these costs may be bearable for well-funded tech giants, they could also further raise the barrier to entry 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, the DSA is likely to produce the "Brussels Effect" — where companies, seeking to unify compliance costs, tend to apply the EU's high standards to their global markets.

The concept of the "Brussels Effect" 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 corporations will proactively extend the strictest standards globally to reduce the operational costs of maintaining multiple compliance frameworks. GDPR is the most typical example — although it is 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 that EU regulation of ChatGPT may ultimately benefit or constrain global users, compelling OpenAI to raise transparency and content safety standards worldwide.

Finding the Balance Between Innovation and Regulation

However, overly strict regulation has also raised industry concerns. Critics argue that heavy compliance burdens could slow the pace of AI innovation, particularly disadvantaging startups. Finding the balance between safeguarding user safety and encouraging technological progress will be an ongoing challenge for the EU and global regulators alike.

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 as important as technical capability. In the future, we will likely see more AI products redefining their roles and boundaries within regulatory frameworks.