The European Commission opened an investigation on June 25 that could designate Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure as “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act, a step that would subject Europe’s two largest cloud providers to strict data-interoperability and competition requirements for the first time.
The two companies together control more than 60% of the European cloud market, according to industry estimates, a concentration that smaller European cloud providers have complained about for years. If designated, AWS and Azure would join a list of platform companies—including Google, Apple, Meta and others—that face special obligations under the bloc’s flagship digital competition law.
The DMA, which took effect in 2024, initially designated six companies for core platform services but left cloud computing out of its first wave of decisions. The commission has been weighing for months whether cloud infrastructure meets the law’s thresholds: it is large, it serves many businesses, and it can act as a gateway between companies and their customers. The investigation announced this week is the formal answer to that question.
A designation would carry real obligations. AWS and Azure would have to make it easier for customers to move data and workloads to competing providers, allow interoperability with other services, and refrain from favoring their own products in ways that lock customers in. The commission can impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s global annual turnover for violations, a figure that would run into the tens of billions for either firm.
For European cloud companies, the investigation is a long-awaited development. Providers such as OVHcloud and other members of the European Cloud and AI Development Initiative have argued for years that the dominant American providers use their scale, bundled services and licensing terms to make switching nearly impossible. Their complaints to regulators, filed over several years, helped set the stage for this investigation.
The commission’s inquiry also extends beyond cloud infrastructure. Regulators have been examining how Microsoft licenses its software to cloud customers, how AWS prices data egress, and how the large providers structure their marketplace ecosystems. The new investigation consolidates several of those threads under the DMA’s framework.
For AWS and Microsoft, the stakes are enormous. Europe is one of the largest cloud markets in the world, and both companies have invested heavily in the region, building data centers across multiple countries to serve banks, governments and manufacturers subject to strict data rules. A gatekeeper designation would add compliance costs and constrain how they can bundle and price services.
The companies have signaled they will contest the process. Both have argued that cloud infrastructure is a competitive market with multiple suppliers and that the DMA’s gatekeeper framework, designed for consumer platforms, does not fit an enterprise market where customers negotiate contracts and can switch providers with planning. The commission’s investigation will test those arguments.
The timing is deliberate. The investigation opens just as the commission prepares a new round of DMA decisions, and cloud infrastructure has been discussed as a candidate for designation for more than a year. Regulators appear to want to settle the question before the next wave of cloud contracts is signed across Europe.
The practical effect, even before a decision, is uncertainty. European enterprises planning cloud migrations now face a question that did not exist a year ago: whether the terms of their AWS or Azure contracts might change, and whether regulators will force the providers to offer more flexible pricing and portability. Some procurement teams are already asking for contract language that anticipates regulatory changes.
The investigation also signals a shift in how Europe treats its digital infrastructure. For years, the region’s regulators focused on consumer platforms—app stores, social networks, online marketplaces. The new inquiry treats cloud computing as a matter of economic sovereignty, part of a broader push to ensure that European businesses and governments are not dependent on a handful of American companies for critical infrastructure.
The market has taken notice. Shares of European cloud companies and consulting firms that help customers manage multi-cloud setups rose after the announcement, while investors in the two giants weighed the cost of new obligations. Analysts said the eventual outcome is likely to be negotiated rather than absolute: the commission may demand specific remedies rather than a wholesale redesign of how the providers operate.
The investigation is also a test of the DMA’s reach. Critics of the law have argued that it was written for consumer platforms and fits enterprise markets poorly, and a cloud designation would extend its logic into a sector that was not central to the original debate. Supporters say that is precisely the point: gatekeeper power can exist in any market, and the law should follow it wherever it appears.
For now, the investigation gives the two cloud giants something they have not faced before in Europe: the possibility of being regulated like the consumer platforms they have long watched from the sidelines. The question of whether cloud computing belongs under the DMA’s rules is now formally on the table, and the answer will shape the European market for years.
