The European Commission has informed Amazon and Microsoft of its preliminary view that they should be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for their cloud computing services. In both cases, the EC found that AWS and Azure, the largest and second-largest cloud computing services in the EU, respectively, are an important gateway between businesses and their customers in the EU.
Amazon and Microsoft have already been designated as gatekeepers for other services, demonstrating their significant impact on the internal market. Their cloud computing services, AWS and Azure, have achieved significant revenue growth, and their operational capacity and investments seem to have outpaced those of competitors. They both have vast, entrenched user bases and appear to benefit from lock-in effects and high switching costs, as well as a large ecosystem.
Furthermore, their portfolio of AI tools and partnerships has become a decisive factor in cloud procurement. Whilst AI is significantly increasing the demand for cloud-related services, AWS and Azure appear to retain a large proportion of this increased demand within their respective ecosystems. Finally, both Amazon and Microsoft appear to hold an entrenched and durable position in the EU cloud computing sector, as is evidenced by AWS's and Azure's leading market position over many years.
The European Commission has informed Amazon and Microsoft of its preliminary view that they should be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for their cloud computing services.
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