Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud computing businesses could be brought under tougher EU tech rules, with regulators looking to curb the power of the world’s two biggest cloud providers.
The European Commission has informed Amazon and Microsoft of its preliminary view that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure should be designated as “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act.
The development would subject AWS and Azure to stricter rules designed to stop dominant digital platforms from abusing their market power.
The obligations could include restrictions on self-preferencing, as well as requirements around interoperability and data portability.
It marks a significant expansion of the EU’s Big Tech crackdown into cloud infrastructure, a sector increasingly critical to ecommerce, retail data, AI and digital transformation.
The Commission said AWS and Azure are the largest and second-largest cloud computing services in the EU respectively, acting as key gateways between businesses and their customers.
It also pointed to their “vast and entrenched” user bases, high switching costs and large ecosystems, as well as the growing importance of their AI tools and partnerships in cloud procurement decisions.
EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said cloud services had become “a cornerstone of Europe’s economy” and a prerequisite for AI, with more than half of EU businesses now relying on them.
She said the sector must operate in “fair, open and competitive markets” to support trust and Europe’s technology sovereignty.
Amazon pushed back against the findings, arguing that applying another layer of regulation could weaken European competitiveness and reduce access to advanced technology.
An AWS spokesperson said the EU already had cloud regulation through the Data Act, adding that further rules risked undermining investment and innovation.
Microsoft also raised concerns that the move failed to account for the growing power of Google Cloud and Gemini.
The Commission launched its cloud market investigations in November 2025 to assess whether AWS and Azure should fall within the DMA despite not meeting the regulation’s usual quantitative thresholds.
Amazon and Microsoft can now challenge the preliminary findings before regulators issue a final decision in the coming months.
If confirmed, the designation could have implications for retailers and consumer brands that rely on AWS or Azure to run ecommerce platforms, data systems, loyalty programmes and AI tools.
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