On August 31, 2026, the European Commission officially designated ChatGPT as a very large online search engine under the Digital Services Act. This matters not only for OpenAI. It is also another sign that AI-generated answers are no longer being treated in the EU as an interesting extra and are starting to face oversight similar to the largest search engines and platforms.

What happened?

The European Commission designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine. Reddit and Roblox were designated at the same time as very large online platforms. All three services reported at least 45 million average monthly users in the European Union, meaning they crossed the threshold that triggers additional obligations under the Digital Services Act.

This is not an old announcement that just happened to take effect today. The designation itself was announced on August 31, 2026, so this is genuinely a new development today.

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What does this actually change?

ChatGPT will have to comply with stricter obligations designed for the largest digital services. These include assessing and mitigating systemic risks connected with how the service and its algorithms operate, including risks related to illegal content, fundamental rights, public safety, electoral processes and effects on users.

The Commission gives it four months to comply with the additional obligations. This moves ChatGPT in the EU from general regulatory scrutiny into a formal category reserved for services with the greatest reach.

Why should an ordinary business care?

Because ChatGPT is increasingly acting like a search engine. Users do not always type a product name into Google and work through ten links anymore. They often ask AI for a recommendation, a provider, a product, a solution to a problem or a comparison of offers. Today’s decision by the Commission formally confirms the scale of that change.

For a website owner, this does not mean SEO has to be rebuilt tomorrow. It does mean AI Search is no longer an experimental channel that can be ignored for another few years. If customers can search for your company, services or products in ChatGPT, it already makes sense to treat visibility in AI answers as a separate part of your online presence strategy.

Do you need to do anything now?

This decision does not create any new direct obligation for an ordinary website owner. The obligations apply to OpenAI. It is still a good moment to check whether the most important information about the company is clear, current and easy for AI systems to understand as well: what the company does, who the offer is for, where it operates, which products or services it offers and what the terms of purchase are.

This is not magical “AI SEO”. It is still solid information architecture, clear content, trustworthy company information and the ability to reach a specific answer without digging through marketing mush.

WebsiteGarage’s take

The most interesting part of this decision is not the new legal label itself. The more interesting point is that the European Commission has placed ChatGPT in the same regulatory category as the largest online search engines. It is hard to imagine a more official confirmation that the way people search for information online has genuinely changed.

This does not mean the end of Google or the end of traditional SEO. It does mean the end of a reasonable argument that says: “AI Search is a temporary trend, we will come back to it someday.” Someday is starting to look a lot like now.

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