The European Commission has opened three market investigations into cloud computing services provided by Amazon and Microsoft under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Two investigations will assess whether Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure should be designated as “gatekeepers”—meaning the Commission would impose additional DMA obligations—based on whether they function as important gateways between business users and end users in the EU, even if they do not currently meet the DMA’s size, user, and market-position thresholds.

A third investigation will examine whether the DMA can effectively tackle practices that may limit competition and fairness in the EU cloud computing sector. This broader probe will consider potential issues such as interoperability between cloud services, access to customer data, tying and bundling practices, and contractual terms that could be imbalanced or restrictive.

If the Commission finds that AWS and Azure qualify as important gateways, the cloud services would be added to the list of core platform services already covered for Amazon and Microsoft under the DMA’s gatekeeper framework. The Commission said it aims to conclude the investigations within about a year, while the broader question of whether current DMA obligations are sufficient is also under review.