Overview
- The European Commission launched a formal market investigation to determine whether Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure act as important gateways subject to Digital Markets Act obligations.
- Officials will examine interoperability barriers, commercial users’ access to data, tying and bundling of services, and potentially imbalanced contract terms in cloud offerings.
- The inquiry targets services that do not meet the DMA’s user thresholds, reflecting concerns that functional market power could still trigger gatekeeper designation.
- Brussels plans to complete the investigation within 12 months and publish a report within 18 months that could propose changes to the DMA for cloud-specific risks.
- Synergy Research Group data show AWS at about 29% market share and Azure near 20%, while AWS and Microsoft pushed back publicly, with AWS warning of higher costs and Microsoft calling the sector competitive.