Why the EU Wants AWS and Azure Under the Digital Markets Act

The European Commission’s case is that Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure may qualify as gatekeepers because of their role as important gateways for businesses in the EU—not because they meet the Digital Markets Act’s usual quantitative thresholds. The Commission announced a preliminary view in June 2026. A final decision has not been announced; Bloomberg reported in October that one could come in November, though the timing could slip. 218

Why the Commission is looking beyond the usual thresholds

The DMA’s quantitative criteria provide a route to presume that a service is a gatekeeper. But the Commission opened market investigations to assess AWS and Azure individually, asking whether they act as important gateways between businesses and their customers despite not meeting those criteria. It also opened a separate investigation into whether the DMA can address potentially competition-limiting practices in cloud computing. 17

On 25 June 2026, the Commission said it preliminarily considered AWS and Azure to be important gateways. It described them as the largest and second-largest cloud computing services in the EU, respectively. That is the Commission’s assessment—not a final designation or a finding that either service has since met the numerical thresholds. 2

How the investigations reached this stage

The Commission launched the three investigations on 18 November 2025. Two examined whether Amazon and Microsoft should be designated for AWS and Azure; the third considered whether the DMA’s existing framework can effectively address cloud-sector practices. 17

The June 2026 announcement set out the Commission’s preliminary position and gave the companies an opportunity to respond. In October, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that regulators were preparing a possible November decision. That report described the decision as still in draft, so the reported timetable and outcome remain uncertain. 218

What designation could require

If the Commission confirms the designations, Amazon and Microsoft would have six months to bring the relevant services into compliance with applicable DMA obligations. Potentially affected areas include interoperability, data portability, access for rivals and rules against giving a service’s own offerings preferential treatment. The specific requirements would depend on the final decisions and how the obligations apply to cloud services. 4

Designation itself would not be a fine. A failure to comply with DMA obligations can lead to fines of up to 10% of a company’s worldwide annual turnover, with the maximum rising to 20% for repeat infringements.

How AWS and critics have responded

AWS has argued that the Commission’s preliminary assessment overlooks the range of cloud services available to European customers and risks deterring investment and innovation.

Critics of the approach question whether cloud infrastructure should be treated like the consumer-facing platforms that have traditionally been central to the DMA. One legal-policy critique argues that cloud services are business-to-business infrastructure and says using the gatekeeper test without the usual thresholds stretches the law’s intended framework. That is an argument about the law’s scope, not a final legal finding. 12

Why the case has become an EU–U.S. flashpoint

The National Foreign Trade Council, a U.S. business group, described the Commission’s preliminary move as an effort to target successful American companies. The Commission, by contrast, has presented its position as based on the services’ role as important gateways in the EU market. These statements show the competing political interpretations; the available reporting does not establish that trade tensions determined the Commission’s assessment. 152

The central issue is therefore not whether AWS and Azure passed the standard numerical tests. It is whether the Commission can establish, through its individual investigations, that their role in the cloud market makes them important gateways under the DMA—and whether that preliminary view survives the companies’ responses and the final decision.