EU to classify AWS and Azure as gatekeepers under DMA, report says

The European Commission is reportedly set to announce preliminary findings next week regarding its investigation into US cloud providers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Sources indicate that Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft's Azure are poised to be designated as "gatekeepers," a classification that will impose stricter regulations on these cloud services within the European Union.

The investigation, which began in November 2025, focused on the market power of US tech giants in the cloud sector. It was prompted by significant outages in cloud services that disrupted numerous other internet-dependent services. Notable incidents included a widespread AWS outage affecting services from Atlassian to the Signal messenger, and a subsequent Azure outage that impacted Microsoft's offerings.

These incidents led European antitrust authorities to scrutinize cloud services under the DMA. Major US cloud providers have largely operated outside the DMA's direct purview due to their business model relying on enterprise contracts, making it difficult to quantify individual user numbers—a key metric for gatekeeper status. The DMA, effective since November 2022, targets large digital platforms acting as "gatekeepers" to ensure fairer competition.

Prior to this reported development, gatekeeper status under the DMA had been assigned to companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft, but this applied to services such as app stores and messaging platforms, not core cloud infrastructure. The upcoming designation for AWS and Azure would mark the first time cloud infrastructure services fall under these stringent regulations.

According to Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, the final results of the investigation are expected later this year, though the timeline remains provisional. The EU Commission and Microsoft have declined to comment on the report, while AWS did not respond to a request for comment. As "gatekeepers," AWS and Azure would be required to ensure interoperability and data portability, simplifying provider switching for customers.