The EU has regulated ChatGPT as a search engine. Calling it a platform would have handed OpenAI a liability shield.

The European Commission classified ChatGPT as a “Very Large Online Search Engine” under the Digital Services Act, imposing transparency and risk-mitigation duties and exposing OpenAI to fines up to 6% of global revenue, but the rule applies only to its information-retrieval functions. By contrast, labeling it a “Very Large Online Platform” would have granted safe-harbour protection, treating the chatbot’s output as third-party content and shielding OpenAI from liability for conversational misuse.