EU eyes Amazon and Microsoft cloud services for gatekeeper status

EU antitrust regulators told Amazon and Microsoft on June 25 that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure should be designated gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act, a step that would bring cloud infrastructure into Europe’s toughest competition regime. The European Commission classified the finding as preliminary, and both companies can respond before any final decision.

AWS and Azure sit beneath a large share of business software, data storage and artificial intelligence deployment across the bloc. Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s tech chief, said cloud services are a cornerstone of Europe’s economy and a prerequisite for AI, adding that more than half of EU businesses now rely on them. The European Commission identified AWS and Azure as the largest and second largest cloud computing services in the EU, even though they did not meet the DMA’s usual quantitative thresholds for designation.

If finalized, the gatekeeper label would bring strict obligations and bans aimed at curbing market power. The rules would limit self-preferencing and require better interoperability and data portability, so customers can switch more easily between services. Noncompliance can draw fines of up to 10% of worldwide turnover. Their concern rests on vast and entrenched user bases, lock-in effects, high switching costs and the size of the two companies’ ecosystems.

Amazon pushed back on the assessment, arguing it ignores the breadth of cloud choice in Europe and could deter investment and innovation. Microsoft objected as well, pointing to Google Cloud’s growing power and warning that regulators were overlooking it. A spokesperson for the Open Cloud Coalition welcomed the preliminary finding.

The Commission opened three cloud market investigations on November 18, 2025, including probes into AWS and Azure and a broader review of whether the DMA can effectively tackle anti-competitive practices in cloud computing. Brussels is also preparing a separate Cloud and AI Development Act package that could impose stricter criteria on cloud providers in sensitive state tenders.