The European Commission has told Amazon and Microsoft that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure should be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act, extending its digital competition regime into cloud infrastructure.
The preliminary findings follow market investigations opened in November 2025 into whether the two cloud platforms act as important gateways between businesses and their customers in the European Union. AWS is the EU’s largest cloud computing service and Azure is the second largest, according to the Commission.
Neither service meets the DMA’s standard quantitative thresholds for designation. Brussels can still classify a platform as a gatekeeper after a qualitative investigation where its scale, market position and commercial influence satisfy the wider legal test.
The Commission found that AWS and Azure have generated substantial turnover while their operating capacity and investment have outpaced competitors. Both services have large and established user bases, supported by ecosystems that can make switching providers technically difficult and commercially expensive.
Cloud customers often build applications, data systems and internal processes around one provider’s tools. Moving those operations can require software changes, data transfers and new staff expertise, creating a level of dependency that can reinforce the largest providers’ positions over time.
Artificial intelligence has added another layer to the Commission’s assessment. AWS and Azure offer expanding portfolios of AI services and maintain partnerships across the sector, giving them an influential position as businesses choose the infrastructure used to develop and run AI products.
Rising demand for computing capacity could strengthen those ecosystems further. The Commission’s preliminary assessment indicates that Amazon and Microsoft are retaining a large share of the growth created by AI within their respective cloud platforms.
Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for technological sovereignty, security and democracy, linked the investigations to the role cloud services now play across the European economy. More than half of EU businesses use cloud computing, while the infrastructure also supports AI development, manufacturing, retail, healthcare and financial services.
Gatekeeper designation would place AWS and Azure under the DMA’s obligations and restrictions. The framework is designed to prevent large platforms from favoring their own products unfairly, limiting interoperability, restricting data portability or using their control of an ecosystem to disadvantageous competitors and business customers.
The precise effect on the two cloud services would depend on how the Commission applies those obligations to infrastructure markets. Cloud computing differs from consumer-facing services such as app stores, search engines and social networks, particularly in the complexity of enterprise contracts and technical integration.
Amazon has previously argued that extending the DMA to cloud services could duplicate the EU Data Act, create uncertainty and discourage infrastructure investment. The company maintains that customers have access to a competitive market and can combine AWS with rival cloud and on-premises systems.
Amazon and Microsoft can now examine the Commission’s investigation files and submit written responses. The preliminary findings do not determine the final outcome, and the companies may seek to challenge the evidence or the Commission’s interpretation of the DMA.
A confirmed decision would give both groups six months to bring AWS and Azure into compliance. That could require changes to contracts, technical systems, data-transfer arrangements and the way their own services operate inside their cloud ecosystems.
The investigation marks an expansion of European oversight into the infrastructure supporting much of the digital economy. A final designation would place competition, cloud procurement and AI strategy under the same regulatory framework already applied to some of the world’s largest consumer technology platforms.
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