Dive Brief:
- The European Commission launched a trio of investigations Monday, two of which will assess whether Amazon and Microsoft should be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act over the market reach of AWS and Microsoft Azure. The commission will also consider rewriting the DMA’s rules to better address competition in cloud computing.
- The cloud offerings do not meet size, user number or market position thresholds for Amazon and Microsoft to merit gatekeeper designation under the DMA, according to the commission. However, the investigation will consider whether the cloud services act as critical gateways between businesses and consumers despite not meeting those thresholds.
- “Cloud computing services are vital for Europe’s competitiveness and resilience,” Teresa Ribera, EVP for clean, just and competitive transition for the commission, said in the announcement launching the investigations. “We want this strategic sector to grow on fair, open and competitive terms.”
Dive Insight:
The commission’s investigation is not the first regulatory scrutiny hyperscalers have faced as their market reach triggers alarms for European agencies.
Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud collectively account for 67% of the global public cloud market, according to research published in October by Synergy Research Group. Amazon’s cloud revenues grew 20% year over year in Q3 2025 to $33 billion, while Microsoft reported $49 billion in cloud revenue for its Q1 2026. Both companies have announced plans to invest billions in growing their cloud infrastructure.
U.K. communications regulator Ofcom began a study of public cloud providers in 2022 before referring the cloud market to the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority for further investigation in 2023. The Ofcom report said “competition is being limited by market features that make it more difficult for customers to switch and use multiple suppliers.”
The CMA also pointed out technical barriers for multicloud adoption and switching between cloud providers in a report issued last year.
Now, the EU is making its own assessments regarding whether AWS and Microsoft Azure should be added to the list of core platform services over which Amazon and Microsoft are already designated as gatekeepers.
Cloud market analyses conducted in recent years show that Microsoft Azure and AWS occupy strong positions in relation to businesses and consumers, according to the commission’s investigation notice. As a result, the commission “will assess if certain features of the cloud sector” may further reinforce the market power of the two hyperscalers.
The commission will also be reviewing whether the DMA, an EU law that came into force in 2022 to make digital markets fairer and more competitive, is equipped to limit practices impeding competition and fairness in the EU’s cloud computing sector.
Regulatory risks and concerns are already causing business leaders to alter their cloud infrastructure plans. Three-quarters of business leaders indicated concerns with geopolitical risks of storing and managing data in global cloud environments, according to Kyndryl’s 2025 Cloud Readiness Report.
As a result, 84% of cloud leaders intentionally opt for multiple cloud environments while another 41% reported repatriating data from public cloud to on-premises servers.
