The European Commission is preparing preliminary findings that Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) may fall under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), according to people familiar with the matter.

That could put the two cloud services under tougher rules.

The DMA lists cloud computing as a core platform service.

The Commission can investigate providers it sees as important gateways with entrenched market positions, even if they do not meet the law’s usual thresholds for size, user numbers, and market position.

When it opened its cloud probe in November 2025, the Commission said AWS and Azure appeared to hold very strong positions.

It also launched a separate market investigation into whether existing DMA rules can effectively address interoperability, limits on data access, tying, bundling, and potentially imbalanced contract terms in the cloud sector.

If designated, AWS and Azure would face DMA obligations, including interoperability requirements and limits on self-preferencing.

Those rules would add to the European Union’s Data Act, which already requires cloud providers to remove barriers to switching and phase out switching fees by 2027.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

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