WhatsApp: EU Commission continues to examine classification as VLOP
WhatsApp has long been threatened with classification as a very large online platform under the DSA. The EU Commission is "actively considering" the issue.
Meta's WhatsApp Messenger can be found on most smartphones
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According to a Reuters report, the EU Commission is currently considering whether WhatsApp should be classified as a "very large online platform" under the Digital Services Act (DSA). If classified as such, WhatsApp would have to meet stricter requirements, such as regular risk assessments regarding the dissemination of harmful and illegal content. Private messengers themselves do not fall under the DSA, as Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier explained to Reuters. However, public WhatsApp channels behave more like social media platforms and could be covered by the DSA.
The question is not new; as early as the beginning of 2025, WhatsApp reported 46.8 million monthly active users from the EU in its channels. This is significantly above the threshold of 45 million that the DSA defines for very large online platforms (VLOP), which is why a classification as VLOP has been on the table since then. In the follow-up report from August 2025, the number had already risen to 51.7 million, but a VLOP classification has not yet occurred.
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This could change in the new year. The EU Commission intends to enforce the DSA (and the Digital Markets Act, DMA) more decisively in the future, but would need to define how exactly WhatsApp's private messaging is to be separated from its public channels. Regnier told Reuters that the Commission is actively considering this separation and that he "would not rule out a future designation" of the channels as VLOP.
If this happens and WhatsApp violates the extended obligations of VLOPs, Meta, the owner of the service, faces hefty fines of up to six percent of its annual global turnover. In December 2025, the EU imposed the first fine under the DSA: Elon Musk's platform X has to pay 120 million euros for several violations; measured by turnover, this is a rather moderate fine, but further investigations into other possible violations by X are still ongoing.
Fundamentally, Meta already has experience with VLOP obligations. Two other services of the company, Facebook and Instagram, have been on the EU Commission's list since April 2023, which currently comprises a total of 24 VLOPs and VLOSEs (Very Large Online Search Engines).
(syt)
