OpenAI flags AI competition concerns to EU regulators

OpenAI has raised competition concerns with EU regulators, highlighting challenges in competing with major tech companies in the AI sector.

The US-based firm met with EU antitrust officials on September 24 to discuss the dominance of large platforms such as Google and urged regulators to prevent them from restricting user choice.

The European Commission is already investigating whether major tech firms are using their market power to strengthen their position in AI.

OpenAI now has over 800 million weekly ChatGPT users and recently reached a US$500 billion valuation after a secondary share sale.

The European Commission and Google have not commented.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Scrutiny beyond traditional market definitions

The EU Commission lacks clear authority to address AI bundling directly under existing merger rules because the Digital Markets Act review won’t conclude until May 2026 1, and generative AI isn’t yet designated as a core platform service requiring gatekeeper compliance 2.
OpenAI’s timing matters: the Commission’s public consultation on AI and the DMA closed September 24, 2025 3—the same day OpenAI met with regulators—suggesting coordinated advocacy during a narrow window when stakeholder input could shape forthcoming AI regulations.
The intercompany agreements OpenAI references likely involve licensing deals between Google’s search, cloud, and Gemini AI operations, which the Commission can examine under Article 102 abuse of dominance provisions 4 even without merger jurisdiction, though proving foreclosure requires demonstrating Google’s conduct prevents rivals from accessing essential inputs like data or compute 5.

Building compliance infrastructure before mandates arrive

B2B SaaS vendors serving European enterprise customers should develop model-switching capabilities and data portability tools now: if the Commission designates generative AI or cloud computing as core platform services 2, Article 5(8) would prohibit tying AI models to other services 2, creating immediate demand for interoperability solutions when rules apply in August 2026 6.
Legal tech and compliance software providers can capture early market share by launching DMA readiness assessments and documentation automation for general-purpose AI providers, whose first obligations take effect August 2025 7, including detailed training data documentation and copyright compliance reporting 7 that most companies haven’t prepared for.