EU weighs ChatGPT as a Digital Markets Act gatekeeper

The European Commission is assessing whether ChatGPT should be designated a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act, the same rulebook that has already fined Google and reshaped how large platforms rank and combine data. On 30 July 2026 a Commission spokesperson confirmed that ChatGPT and Roblox have reported EU user numbers above the law’s thresholds and that a gatekeeper designation is possible. For multi-location brands, this is the moment an AI assistant starts to look less like an app and more like a regulated channel.

What happened

The Commission has confirmed it is looking at whether ChatGPT meets the Digital Markets Act’s gatekeeper criteria. According to Eunews, a spokesperson for the Commission said ChatGPT and Roblox have announced user numbers exceeding the specified thresholds, that a gatekeeper designation is possible, and that the Commission will assess the figures before deciding on next steps. The process is at the assessment stage, not a formal designation or market investigation.

The Digital Markets Act sets quantitative gatekeeper thresholds an operator can cross. A company falls within scope when it provides a core platform service in at least three EU member states, with at least 45 million monthly active end users in the EU and 10,000 yearly active business users established in the EU, alongside a size test of either a Union turnover of at least 7.5 billion euros in each of the last three financial years or a market valuation above 75 billion euros. ChatGPT has reported user numbers above those thresholds, which is what put it on the Commission’s radar.

Why it matters

If a general-purpose AI assistant is designated a gatekeeper, the obligations that already bind Google and other designated platforms would extend to the way people increasingly search. Gatekeepers cannot rank their own services ahead of rivals, face limits on combining personal data across their services without consent, and must give business users fairer access and clearer terms. Applied to an AI assistant, those rules touch the exact mechanics that decide whether a brand’s locations, hours and offers surface accurately in an answer, and on what terms.

This is early. A designation is not certain, and any obligations would follow a formal process. But the direction is set: the surfaces where customers ask questions about local businesses are moving inside the same regulatory perimeter as classic search.

What this means for multi-location brands

Treat AI assistants as a governed discovery channel now, before the rules force the question. A central team running hundreds or thousands of locations already manages how the brand appears in Google and Apple; conversational AI is the next surface, and its answers are only as accurate as the location data feeding them. Keep that data structured and correct at scale through a single local business listing source of truth, and use Places AI to manage how your locations are represented across the AI answer layer rather than leaving it to whatever a model infers. The topical groundwork sits in generative engine optimization, and the regulatory backdrop matters most for European multi-location brands whose central teams will act on any DMA designation first.

The governance point is the same one that applies to Google: you cannot control the platform, but you can control the accuracy and structure of the data it draws on, and you should be ready for a channel whose rulebook already exists and whose application to AI assistants is now being decided.

ChatGPT and Roblox have announced user numbers above the Digital Markets Act’s thresholds, and the European Commission has said a gatekeeper designation is possible while it assesses the figures.

Eunews, 30 July 2026

The bottom line

The EU is testing whether an AI assistant belongs in the gatekeeper club, and the answer will shape how brand and location data can be surfaced in AI answers across the bloc. Enterprises that keep their location data clean and treat conversational AI as a managed channel will be ready whichever way the designation goes.