Overview
- The European Commission issued preliminary findings on Thursday that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure meet the qualitative criteria to be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act.
- Regulators cited the two providers' large market share, entrenched customer bases, high switching costs including egress fees, and their central role in AI tools and procurement as the main reasons for the move.
- A gatekeeper label would require greater interoperability, enforce non‑punitive data portability, ban certain self‑preferencing practices, and subject firms to fines of up to 10% of global turnover for breaches.
- AWS and Microsoft have publicly disputed the assessment, and both companies can formally rebut the preliminary findings before a final Commission decision planned by the end of 2026.
- The Commission is also running a separate review on whether the DMA rules need tailoring for cloud services through 2027, a process that could reshape how Europe governs cloud competition, data flows and AI infrastructure.