The European Commission just fired a warning shot at the two biggest names in cloud computing. On November 18, the Commission launched three market investigations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), targeting Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure for potential gatekeeper designations.
Here’s the thing: neither AWS nor Azure actually meets the DMA’s quantitative thresholds for automatic gatekeeper classification. The Commission is probing them anyway, a signal that Brussels is willing to look beyond the numbers when it believes market power is being exercised in ways that stifle competition.
What the investigation actually covers
The DMA, which has been effective since 2022, was designed to keep digital markets competitive. It hands the Commission power to designate certain large platforms as “gatekeepers,” a label that comes with a long list of obligations around interoperability, data portability, and fair access for competitors.
The investigations will examine the significant roles AWS and Azure play in the cloud sector, with particular focus on anticompetitive practices, lock-in effects, and barriers that make it difficult for smaller competitors to gain traction. The Commission has indicated it expects to reach conclusions within 12 months.
