The European Commission reached a preliminary position that Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure should be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act, calling them the EU’s largest and second-largest cloud services. The designation would impose obligations around interoperability, data access, and competition, with fines up to 10% of worldwide turnover for non-compliance, on the grounds both benefit from entrenched user bases, lock-in effects, and high switching costs. The two didn’t meet the DMA’s quantitative thresholds, so the Commission is reaching for the designation on market-position grounds instead. Both pushed back, with AWS warning it risks deterring European investment and Microsoft arguing the Commission ignores Google Cloud and Gemini’s growing power. A confirmed designation would give each six months to comply.
