The EU’s cloud gatekeeper push moved from theory to practice this summer, as the European Commission told Amazon and Microsoft that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure should be designated under the Digital Markets Act. The preliminary finding, published on 25 June 2026, extends the bloc’s digital-competition regime into cloud infrastructure for the first time.
The step matters because it reaches the plumbing of the modern economy. Where the DMA has so far policed app stores, search and messaging, a cloud gatekeeper designation would place the servers that run much of European business under the same conduct rules.
## Why the cloud gatekeeper call is unusual
The determination rests on a qualitative judgement rather than the DMA’s numeric thresholds. Neither AWS, the largest cloud provider in the EU, nor Azure, the second-largest, clears the law’s standard quantitative benchmarks for automatic designation.
Instead, the Commission found each acts as “an important gateway between businesses and their customers in the EU.” Using that discretionary route to name a cloud gatekeeper is a first in the regulation’s history, and a signal that Brussels will not let threshold gaps shield dominant firms.
## The role of AI in the case
Artificial intelligence sits at the centre of the reasoning. The Commission cited AI tools and AI-cloud partnerships as a decisive factor in how firms choose a provider, linking infrastructure lock-in directly to the AI stack customers increasingly depend on.
That framing ties two of Brussels’ biggest regulatory projects together. It suggests future cloud gatekeeper scrutiny will focus as much on bundled AI services as on raw compute and storage.
## What lock-in means for customers
The findings lean on familiar competition concerns:
– Switching costs that make moving between providers slow and expensive.
– Egress fees charged when customers pull their data out.
– Technical and contractual barriers that discourage using more than one cloud.
If designation is confirmed, obligations could force easier data portability, fairer switching terms and limits on self-preferencing.
## Timeline and next steps
AWS and Azure have until September 2026 to submit written representations and request a hearing. Because a DMA market investigation must conclude within twelve months of opening, the Commission must decide by November 2026, with a final ruling expected around late October.
A confirmed cloud gatekeeper then gets six months to comply. The companies can still contest the findings, and any designation is likely to be tested in the EU courts.
## The stakes for Europe
The outcome will shape how the DMA ages. Stretching the cloud gatekeeper concept beyond consumer platforms shows the Commission intends the law to follow market power wherever it concentrates, even into the business-to-business layer that ordinary users never see. For European firms weighing where to host their data and AI workloads, the decision could redraw the terms of one of the market’s most important relationships. Analysts note the case could set the template for other business-facing markets, from online advertising tools to enterprise software, where a handful of providers hold similar sway over how European companies operate.
