The European Commission has formally designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE) under the Digital Services Act, while Reddit and Roblox have been designated Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs).
The designations follow notifications from each service confirming that they reach at least 45 million average monthly users in the European Union, the threshold set under the DSA for these categories.
VLOP and VLOSE status brings additional obligations under the DSA, including systemic risk assessments, independent audits, and enhanced transparency reporting, on top of the baseline duties that apply to all providers covered by the regulation.
The designation sits alongside, rather than within, the EU AI Act, but it is relevant to organisations tracking both regimes. Services that qualify as VLOPs or VLOSEs and also deploy or provide general-purpose AI models may face overlapping documentation and risk-management expectations across the two frameworks.
For organisations built on or integrated with ChatGPT, Reddit, or Roblox, this designation signals closer regulatory scrutiny of these platforms' algorithmic systems, recommender mechanisms, and content moderation practices going forward.
As a compliance matter, businesses that rely on these services as part of their AI supply chain should monitor how the newly applicable DSA obligations, such as risk assessments and audit outcomes, might affect service terms, data access, or model behaviour.
This development is a useful reminder that AI Act compliance does not exist in isolation. Providers and deployers preparing AI Act documentation should track parallel obligations under the DSA where the same platforms or models are involved, to avoid duplicative or inconsistent internal processes.