Amazon and Microsoft Cloud Services Face Potentially Tougher EU Oversight

The European Commission (EC) announced on 18 November 2025 that it is launching two formal investigations into the cloud‑services arms of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft, via its Azure platform) to determine whether they should be designated as “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Although AWS and Microsoft do not currently meet the formal thresholds for designation under the DMA (based on size, user numbers or market position), the EC says that preliminary evidence suggests the firms may act as “important gateways between businesses and consumers” in the EU cloud‑computing market—which would justify inclusion and stricter obligations. US cloud providers already dominate roughly two‑thirds of the 27‑nation EU bloc’s market, with AWS leading and Microsoft Azure following. The EC excluded Google LLC’s Google Cloud from the current probes, noting that Google currently plays a “less important role” in the EU market than AWS and Microsoft. The investigations, expected to conclude within about a year, form part of the EU’s broader push for digital sovereignty and fairness in tech markets. The EC also said it will open a third probe to assess whether the DMA needs updating to better cover cloud‑computing practices that may undermine competition. AWS and Microsoft responded that the cloud sector is already “extremely dynamic, with lots of choice, unprecedented innovation opportunity, and low costs,” and warned that imposing gatekeeper status on cloud providers could risk stifling innovation and raising prices for European companies. Under the DMA, designated gatekeepers can face fines up to 10 % of their global annual turnover for violations—making the designation far from symbolic. #EUtech #CloudRegulation #BigTechGatekeepers #DigitalMarketsAct #SlimScan #GrowthStocks #CANSLIM