EU regulators launch trio of cloud market probes

The European Commission has initiated a formal assessment to determine if Microsoft Azure and AWS should be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Although these hyperscalers did not initially meet the specific gatekeeper thresholds, regulators are investigating whether their market influence and relationships with business users necessitate stricter oversight to ensure fair competition. This move follows similar scrutiny in the U.K. and reflects a broader effort to address technical barriers that prevent customers from switching cloud providers.

The European Commission is currently investigating whether Microsoft Azure and AWS should be added to the list of core platform services designated as gatekeepers under the DMA, an EU law established in 2022 to foster fair digital markets. While the two platforms did not meet the initial quantitative gatekeeper thresholds, the commission's notice indicates that both companies occupy strong positions regarding businesses and consumers. The probe will specifically assess if certain features of the cloud sector reinforce the market power of these hyperscalers and whether the DMA is currently equipped to limit practices that impede competition and fairness within the EU.

This regulatory scrutiny arrives as the 'Big Three' providers—Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud—collectively command 67% of the global public cloud market, per Synergy Research Group. Financial data underscores their scale, with Amazon reporting $33 billion in cloud revenue for Q3 2025 and Microsoft reporting $49 billion for its Q1 2026. The EU's action mirrors previous efforts in the U.K., where Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) identified market features that make it difficult for customers to switch suppliers or utilize multiple cloud environments, citing specific technical barriers to multicloud adoption.

The pressure from regulators and geopolitical concerns are already shifting corporate strategies according to Kyndryl’s 2025 Cloud Readiness Report, which found that 75% of business leaders worry about the risks of global cloud data management. In response to these challenges, 84% of cloud leaders have intentionally opted for multicloud environments, and 41% have reported repatriating data from the public cloud to on-premises servers. Despite these shifts and the looming regulatory probes, both Microsoft and Amazon have announced plans to invest billions of dollars to further expand their cloud infrastructure to meet the demands of emerging technologies like AI.