On June 25, 2026, the European Commission informed Amazon and Microsoft that it preliminarily believes their cloud infrastructure services—Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure—should be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The preliminary finding, if confirmed following a detailed investigation and the companies’ defense, would impose a new layer of stringent regulatory obligations on the two largest hyperscale cloud providers in Europe. The decision marks the most significant regulatory escalation against the cloud computing industry since the DMA entered into force in 2022.

The Commission’s move targets the core platform services that underpin modern digital economies. Cloud infrastructure, used by businesses to host applications, store data, and power artificial intelligence workloads, has become a multi‑billion‑euro market dominated by a handful of American tech giants. By signaling its intention to bring AWS and Azure under the DMA’s gatekeeper regime, Brussels is sending a clear message: the rules that already apply to search engines, social networks, and app stores are now coming for the cloud.

Understanding the Digital Markets Act Gatekeeper Framework

The DMA, which became applicable in May 2023, aims to ensure contestable and fair markets in the digital sector across the European Union. It establishes a set of objective criteria to identify so‑called gatekeepers—large digital platforms that provide an important gateway between business users and consumers and enjoy an entrenched and durable position. A company is presumed to be a gatekeeper if it meets three quantitative thresholds: an annual EU turnover of at least €7.5 billion in each of the last three financial years, a market capitalisation or fair market value of at least €75 billion in the last financial year, and an active user base of more than 45 million monthly end users and 10,000 yearly business users in the EU.

Designation is not automatic; the Commission must also conduct a qualitative assessment to confirm that a service constitutes a core platform service (CPS) and that the provider is a gatekeeper. The DMA lists ten CPS categories, including cloud computing services. Once designated, gatekeepers must comply with a list of “do’s and don’ts” designed to open up digital markets. These obligations include allowing business users to interoperate with the gatekeeper’s services, providing data portability, refraining from self‑preferencing, and ensuring that end users can easily change default settings.

Non‑compliance can result in fines of up to 10% of a company’s total worldwide annual turnover, rising to 20% for repeated infringements. The Commission can also impose structural remedies, such as the divestiture of parts of a business, if necessary.

The Commission’s Preliminary Cloud Gatekeeper Designation

While the full text of the Commission’s preliminary opinion has not been published, the announcement confirms that AWS and Azure are under scrutiny for their roles as cloud infrastructure platforms. Both services meet the quantitative thresholds comfortably. Amazon’s annual EU revenue far exceeds €7.5 billion, and its market capitalisation has consistently been above €75 billion. Microsoft similarly surpasses the financial thresholds. The Commission’s investigation will now focus on whether AWS and Azure qualify as an “important gateway” for business users to reach end users and whether they enjoy an entrenched and durable position.

The preliminary designation specifically lists “cloud infrastructure services” as the relevant CPS. This category covers Infrastructure‑as‑a‑Service (IaaS) and Platform‑as‑a‑Service (PaaS) offerings, which include virtual machines, storage, networking, and the software tools developers use to build and run applications. The Commission likely considered factors such as the high market concentration in European cloud spending—where AWS and Azure together account for more than half of the market—and the significant switching costs and technical barriers that lock customers into a single provider.

A key element of the DMA gatekeeper test is that the service is an “important gateway” for business users. In the cloud context, this means enterprises and software developers rely on AWS or Azure to access their own customers. For example, a startup hosting its app on AWS effectively uses that infrastructure as the bridge to its end users. If the startup cannot easily move to another cloud, the provider holds substantial control over that gateway. The Commission’s preliminary view suggests it has seen enough evidence to believe that both AWS and Azure occupy such a position.

What Gatekeeper Status Would Mean for AWS and Microsoft

If formally designated, AWS and Microsoft would have to comply with the DMA’s obligations within six months. The most impactful requirements for cloud providers are likely to include:

  • Interoperability obligations: Gatekeepers must allow third‑party services to interoperate with their own operating systems, virtual assistants, or hardware features. In the cloud, this could translate into requirements to ensure that workloads can be moved seamlessly between AWS, Azure, and other providers. Concretely, the Commission might mandate standardised APIs, open‑source software stacks, and the removal of technical obstacles that make multi‑cloud strategies difficult.
  • Data portability: Business users must be able to access and transfer their data generated through the use of the gatekeeper’s service. Cloud providers would need to provide tools that let customers export their entire data sets, including application configurations and logs, in machine‑readable formats without excessive fees or delays.
  • No anti‑steering or parity clauses: Gatekeepers cannot prevent business users from offering different prices or terms on other platforms. In cloud, this would mean AWS and Azure could not stop a customer from advertising better deals if they purchase services through a partner or directly on the company’s own website.
  • Fairness in ranking and self‑preferencing: If a cloud provider operates a marketplace for third‑party software (for example, AWS Marketplace or Azure Marketplace), it must not treat its own competing products more favourably than those of rivals.
  • Transparency in advertising: Gatekeepers would need to provide data on the performance of advertisements and pricing information—less immediately relevant for IaaS/PaaS, but could apply to their digital advertising arms if integrated.
  • Merger notification: Gatekeepers must inform the Commission of any intended mergers or acquisitions, regardless of turnover thresholds.

For AWS, the obligations could force a fundamental rethink of its proprietary ecosystem. AWS has built a massive portfolio of over 200 services with deep integration points that create lock‑in—for instance, its Lambda serverless functions work best with other AWS services, and its Aurora databases are fully managed only on AWS. Requiring interoperability might compel Amazon to publish APIs, documentation, and perhaps even contribute to open‑source projects that enable customers to run the same workloads on competing clouds without recoding.

Microsoft Azure faces similar scrutiny, though the company has already made some pre‑emptive moves. Under its “Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty” and EU Data Boundary programs, Microsoft has been tailoring its products to meet European regulatory demands. However, Azure’s deep integration with Microsoft 365 Teams, Dynamics, and its own identity services could be viewed as self‑preferencing if those services enjoy an unfair advantage on Azure over third‑party alternatives.

Market Impact and Reactions

The preliminary designation has immediate consequences for the competitive landscape. AWS and Azure will now be operating under heightened regulatory uncertainty. Enterprise customers negotiating multi‑year cloud contracts will want to see clear plans for compliance, while competitors such as Google Cloud, OVHcloud, and Deutsche Telekom’s T‑Systems see an opportunity to win business by highlighting their non‑gatekeeper status and native interoperability.

Analysts at Gartner and Forrester have long warned about the risk of hyperscaler dominance. A 2025 study by Synergy Research Group showed that AWS held 32% of the European cloud market, followed by Azure at 23%, and Google Cloud at 11%. Together, the three US providers control two‑thirds of the market. The DMA’s planned intervention could accelerate the growth of alternative European cloud initiatives such as Gaia‑X and the French‑backed “cloud de confiance” effort.

Investor reaction was swift. Shares of Amazon and Microsoft dipped slightly in after‑hours trading following the announcement, reflecting concern about potential compliance costs and the precedent it sets for other jurisdictions. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which has been conducting its own cloud market investigation, may take similar steps, while US antitrust enforcers at the FTC and DOJ are watching closely.

Business users have expressed a mix of cautious optimism and skepticism. The Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) trade association, which has long campaigned against unfair software licensing practices, welcomed the preliminary finding. “This is a crucial step toward ending the lock‑in that stifles innovation and inflates costs for European businesses,” said CISPE Secretary General. However, some large enterprise customers worry that hastily imposed interoperability rules could degrade performance or security if not implemented carefully.

Next Steps in the DMA Process

The Commission’s preliminary view triggers a formal investigation period during which Amazon and Microsoft can present their counter‑arguments. The companies have the right to access the file—to review the evidence on which the Commission based its preliminary conclusion—and to request an oral hearing. They can also offer commitments to address the Commission’s concerns, potentially avoiding a full designation if the remedies are deemed sufficient.

Typically, the Commission has 12 months from the opening of proceedings to adopt a final decision, though extensions are possible. If it confirms gatekeeper status, the designated services must submit a detailed compliance report within six months, explaining how they intend to meet each DMA obligation. The Commission then monitors compliance and can launch further investigations if it suspects non‑compliance.

Importantly, the DMA allows designated gatekeepers to request a suspension of specific obligations if compliance would endanger the economic viability of their operations or if exceptional circumstances exist. However, such requests are unlikely to be granted lightly.

Amazon and Microsoft have issued brief statements. An Amazon spokesperson said, “We are reviewing the Commission’s preliminary opinion and will continue to engage constructively. AWS serves millions of customers across Europe with secure, reliable cloud services, and we remain committed to complying with all applicable regulations.” Microsoft stated, “We have worked with the European Commission throughout this process to ensure our practices are fair and pro‑competitive. We will continue to demonstrate how Azure fosters a vibrant ecosystem for European businesses of all sizes.”

Neither company indicated whether it would challenge the designation in court, though such challenges are common. In 2024, Apple and Meta contested their DMA gatekeeper designations in the EU’s General Court, arguing that the Commission had misinterpreted the criteria. The proceedings can take years and create a period of uncertainty.

Broader Implications for Tech Regulation

The preliminary cloud gatekeeper designation is part of a global wave of regulatory activism targeting Big Tech. The EU has been at the forefront, with the DMA and its sister legislation, the Digital Services Act (DSA), reshaping how platforms operate. If AWS and Azure are ultimately designated, it would mark the first time pure infrastructure platforms—as opposed to consumer‑facing platforms—fall under such ex‑ante rules.

That could influence regulatory debates worldwide. The UK’s Digital Markets Unit, now armed with statutory powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, is considering designating cloud services as having “strategic market status.” India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has floated a draft Digital Competition Bill that mirrors DMA provisions. Meanwhile, in the US, bills like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act have stalled, but aggressive antitrust lawsuits against Amazon and Google continue.

For CIOs and IT buyers, a DMA‑mandated cloud might finally deliver on the promise of genuine multi‑cloud portability. Standardised container formats, common API frameworks, and transparent pricing could reduce the friction that keeps many organizations tied to a single vendor. However, the transition will be complex. Large‑scale enterprise workloads are often deeply intertwined with cloud‑native services, and forcing separation could require costly refactoring.

Critics warn that over‑regulation could backfire, raising costs and slowing innovation. “The DMA was designed for consumer platforms with direct network effects between users and advertisers, not for the complex, enterprise-driven cloud market,” said a senior fellow at a Brussels think tank. “Applying these rigid rules to IaaS could inadvertently harm European developers if providers are forced to limit the custom optimizations that make their services powerful.”

Analysis: A Defining Moment for Europe’s Digital Sovereignty

The Commission’s preliminary finding on AWS and Azure is more than a regulatory procedure—it is a strategic statement about Europe’s ambition to set the rules for the digital economy. By targeting the foundational layer of the cloud stack, Brussels is asserting that no segment of the tech industry is too complex or too essential to escape antitrust oversight. The move aligns with the broader push for European digital sovereignty, articulated in the 2030 Digital Decade targets, which call for the EU to reduce its dependency on non‑EU cloud providers.

Yet enforcement will be the true test. DMA obligations such as interoperability and data portability are easy to articulate but fiendishly difficult to implement across massively distributed cloud systems. The Commission will need to develop deep technical expertise to avoid creating loopholes or placing European cloud users at a disadvantage compared to those in other regions. A heavy‑handed approach could prompt AWS and Azure to restrict the rollout of advanced AI and analytics services in Europe, fearing they might violate the rules, while a tentative approach risks failing to deliver the contestability the DMA promises.

The preliminary designation also highlights a timing challenge. By June 2026, the cloud market will have evolved further, perhaps shaped by AI‑as‑a‑service offerings and edge computing. Regulatory frameworks crafted today may struggle to keep pace with technological change. The Commission has acknowledged this by building in flexibility to update gatekeeper designations based on new evidence, but industry participants remain wary.

For now, the ball is in Amazon’s and Microsoft’s court. The months ahead will see intense lobbying, legal maneuvering, and perhaps the crafting of elaborate compliance roadmaps. European businesses, meanwhile, will watch closely, hoping that the outcome gives them more choice without sacrificing the reliability and innovation they have come to depend on.

This is a developing story. The Commission is expected to formalise its preliminary view in a publicly available decision within weeks, after redacting any commercially sensitive information. A final designation, if it comes, would likely take effect by mid‑2027, shaping the European cloud market for a decade to come.