EU May Designate Roblox and ChatGPT as VLOPs Under the DSA

Bloomberg has reported that the European Commission is preparing to designate Roblox as a very large online platform (VLOP) and ChatGPT as a very large online search engine (VLOSE) under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The reported designations could be announced in August 2026. Neither designation should be treated as final until the Commission publishes its formal decisions.

Under Article 33 DSA, the Commission may designate online platforms and online search engines with an average of more than 45 million monthly active recipients in the EU as VLOPs or VLOSEs. The designation places services under the DSA’s enhanced due-diligence regime. The relevant providers must comply with the additional obligations within four months of notification of the Commission’s decision.

For Roblox, the VLOP rules would add to regulatory pressure concerning child safety, harmful content, and the design of online environments used by minors. A designated service must carry out annual assessments of systemic risks, including risks connected with illegal content, children’s protection, gender-based violence, fundamental rights, civic discourse, and electoral processes. It must also adopt proportionate mitigation measures and assess their effectiveness.

For ChatGPT, a VLOSE designation would be legally significant and may raise questions about how the service meets the DSA definition of an “online search engine.” A VLOSE must assess and mitigate systemic risks associated with its service, undergo independent annual audits, maintain an internal compliance function, and provide specified data access to the European Commission and vetted researchers. The DSA also imposes transparency duties relating to advertising, recommender systems, and content moderation where the relevant provisions apply.

The reported designations would place Roblox and ChatGPT alongside services already designated by the Commission, including Google Search, Google Maps, Google Play, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, X, and YouTube. For both companies, the immediate legal priority would be to prepare governance, risk-assessment, audit, documentation, transparency, and regulator-engagement processes before the four-month compliance period expires.