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EU Says Amazon, Microsoft Cloud Services Should Face Stricter Rules
The commission said Azure and AWS are the EU cloud market’s top two services and may face new gatekeeper rules under the Digital Markets Act.
In preliminary findings issued Thursday, the European Union suggested Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services should be designated as "gatekeepers" under the Digital Markets Act , despite both services failing to meet the law's quantitative thresholds.
A seven-month investigation led the European Commission to argue that the services act as an "important gateway" between businesses and customers, citing their massive turnover, operational scale, and entrenched user bases.
Executive Vice-President for tech sovereignty Henna Virkkunen noted cloud services are now a "prerequisite for AI," while regulators emphasize that high switching costs and lock-in effects currently restrict market competition.
Microsoft criticized the Commission for excluding Alphabet Inc.'s Google Cloud and Gemini, while an Amazon spokesperson warned the preliminary findings risk deterring European investment and innovation.
Companies can now contest the findings before the Commission issues a final decision in the coming months, as the findings trigger a defense phase.