EU Commission Moves to Designate Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure as DMA Gatekeepers for Cloud Services

The short version is this: The European Commission has notified Amazon and Microsoft that their cloud computing platforms, AWS and Azure, will likely be designated as "gatekeepers" under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).[1]

This is a preliminary finding, not a final ruling, but it signals a massive regulatory shift. For the first time, the EU is applying its landmark digital competition law to the business-to-business infrastructure layer of the internet, rather than consumer-facing app stores or social networks.[4]

The actual capability being regulated here is foundational compute and storage. AWS and Azure are the largest and second-largest cloud providers in Europe, controlling roughly 65% to 70% of the region's cloud revenue according to Synergy Research Group data cited in the proceedings.[3]

What makes the Commission's move unusual is that neither AWS nor Azure actually meets the DMA's strict quantitative thresholds for designation. The law typically requires a service to have 45 million monthly active end users in the EU to automatically trigger gatekeeper status.[1]

Instead, regulators are relying on a qualitative mechanism. They argue that these platforms function as an "important gateway" between businesses and their customers, possessing an entrenched and durable market position that warrants intervention regardless of raw user counts.[1][3]

The evidence cited by the Commission relies heavily on lock-in effects and the recent integration of artificial intelligence. Officials explicitly pointed to AI tools and AI-cloud partnerships as a "decisive factor" in modern cloud procurement.[1]

The regulatory argument is that by bundling proprietary AI models with their underlying cloud infrastructure, Amazon and Microsoft are reinforcing customer lock-in and making it artificially difficult for competitors to challenge their dominance.[4]

This is where the evidence gets slightly thinner. While lock-in via egress fees—the punitive costs charged to move data out of a specific cloud—is well-documented and widely criticized by developers, the direct causal link between recent AI partnerships and insurmountable market barriers is still being tested in real-time.[4]

If the designation holds through the final decision, which is expected by the end of 2026, the practical implications for these companies are severe. The DMA mandates strict interoperability and outright bans self-preferencing.[2][4]

For AWS and Azure, this would likely mean they can no longer make it technically difficult or financially ruinous for an enterprise customer to use a competing database service or AI model on top of their infrastructure.[2][3]

Non-compliance carries existential financial risks. The DMA gives the EU the power to impose fines of up to 10% of a company's total global turnover for initial violations, rising to 20% for repeated breaches.[2]

Both companies are pushing back against the preliminary findings. Amazon has criticized the assessment, arguing that it overlooks the range of alternative cloud providers available to European businesses, even if none operate at the scale of AWS.[4]

Microsoft has similarly challenged the conclusions, suggesting regulators failed to adequately account for the competitive pressure exerted by Google Cloud, which ranks third globally.[4]

In their defense, both companies have deployed standard industry marketing language, warning that overlapping regulations—specifically the existing EU Data Act combined with the DMA—will "discourage investment and innovation."[4]

The political timing of the move is also highly charged. The DMA has already drawn the ire of US politicians, who frequently frame EU tech regulation as a targeted attack on American corporate success.[2]

Adding the two largest American cloud providers to the DMA's scope puts Brussels on a direct collision course with Washington at a moment when transatlantic trade talks are already strained.[2]

Meanwhile, the European Parliament has been actively pushing the Commission to accelerate its enforcement. A recent parliamentary resolution explicitly called for the sectoral extension of the DMA to cloud services to promote "digital sovereignty."[5]

Amazon and Microsoft now have the opportunity to review the Commission's evidence and submit written responses before any final decision is drafted.[1][4]

If the Commission confirms its preliminary findings, it will formally designate the cloud services as gatekeepers, starting a six-month countdown for AWS and Azure to bring their operations into full DMA compliance.[4]

The final decision will test whether the EU can successfully stretch a law designed for app stores and search engines to cover the invisible plumbing of the digital economy. If it works, it could force a structural unbundling of cloud infrastructure from the AI services running on top of it.[3]