{"id":943557,"date":"2026-05-07T10:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T10:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/943557\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T10:16:21","slug":"amazon-and-microsoft-finally-face-eu-anti-competitive-cloud-probe-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/943557\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon and Microsoft finally face EU anti-competitive cloud probe \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last November, following years of complaints of anti-competitive behaviour in cloud\u00a0computing markets, the European Commission opened three market investigations using the\u00a0Digital Markets Act (DMA). <\/p>\n

This is the first time the DMA will be used to regulate cloud\u00a0computing and so this is uncharted territory. <\/p>\n

The question is whether the commission will be\u00a0able to remedy the most egregious anti-competitive practices in cloud computing using its DMA powers, in particular restrictive software licensing practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clouds \u2013 the forgotten service<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to digital services regulation, cloud computing is the forgotten \u2018core platform\u00a0service\u2019 (CPS) among a list of selected digital services regulated by the DMA.<\/p>\n

Unlike all other\u00a0CPS, the commission has taken years to open market investigations into cloud computing.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Two investigations are now assessing whether Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft\u00a0Azure respectively should be designated as \u2018gatekeepers\u2019, subjecting them to specific regulatory obligations. <\/p>\n

The third investigation is broader, assessing whether the DMA can tackle practices that limit competitiveness and fairness in the cloud computing sector.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What will likely have persuaded the commission to open these cloud investigations is the growing consensus among global competition authorities that the cloud market suffers from\u00a0significant competition issues \u2014 mainly due to market concentration between AWS and Microsoft\u00a0 and switching barriers. <\/p>\n

Over the last four years, competition authorities \u2013 Japan\u2019s Fair Trade\u00a0 Commission in 2022, the French Autorit\u00e9 de la Concurrence [Competition Authority] in 2023, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) in 2024, the OECD and the UK\u2019s Competition and Markets\u00a0 Authority (CMA) in 2025 \u2013 have expressed similar concerns that AWS and Microsoft\u2019s control\u00a0over data and infrastructure in cloud markets creates high barriers to entry for smaller players, limited interoperability, high switching costs and customer lock-in effects. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition,\u00a0restrictive software licensing practices by Microsoft have been identified as restricting\u00a0competition in cloud markets by the UK\u2019s CMA, and, since 2024, the US Federal Trade\u00a0Commission (FTC) has been investigating Microsoft for anti-competitive licensing practices in the cloud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In recent years, the European Commission has also received several competition law complaints against Microsoft concerning its cloud software-licensing practices. <\/p>\n

The industry\u00a0 body, the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers of Europe<\/a> (CISPE), made a competition\u00a0law complaint which it withdrew following negotiation and settlement discussions, but has\u00a0spent the last few years in negotiations for better commercial terms after a promised technical\u00a0 solution was not forthcoming. <\/p>\n

Google also made a complaint to the European Commission\u00a0about Microsoft imposing higher costs for running its software on competitor clouds. <\/p>\n

This\u00a0complaint was withdrawn in November 2025, with the expectation that the DMA investigation\u00a0 into cloud computing would address these practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New test for the DMA?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remedies to fix a market problem in cloud markets have previously only been possible using EU competition law such as Article 102 TFEU<\/a>, which prohibits abuse of dominance. <\/p>\n

In\u00a0contrast, the DMA market investigations address whether ex-ante regulation \u2013 the DMA\u00a0 regulatory regime \u2013 applies to a gatekeeper in cloud markets. <\/p>\n

If AWS and Azure are designated\u00a0as gatekeepers, they will face the pre-defined obligations in Articles 5 and 6 of the DMA: for\u00a0example, prohibitions on self-preferencing, and obligations on fair access to data. <\/p>\n

The problem is that most of the DMA\u2019s current pre-defined remedies are designed for consumer-facing services, such as app stores, and are unsuited to practices in B2B markets like the cloud-computing market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the European Commission\u2019s decision to open the third market investigation, it makes clear that existing DMA obligations in Articles 5 and 6 are inadequate when regulating cloud-centric competition issues such as weak interoperability and tying and bundling practices. <\/p>\n

Therefore,\u00a0 if the investigation finds the current remedies insufficient \u2013 given their focus on B2C markets\u00a0 rather than the distinct dynamics of B2B cloud markets \u2013 the European Commission will need\u00a0 to propose amendments to introduce additional, cloud-appropriate obligations under the DMA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A waiting game\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The European Commission aims to conclude the market investigations on AWS and Azure by November 2026. <\/p>\n

If, as expected, they are designated as gatekeepers they will have six months\u00a0to ensure compliance with the DMA obligations. <\/p>\n

However, any cloud-specific regulatory\u00a0remedies under the DMA are unlikely to take effect before 2028. <\/p>\n

The final report from the third DMA investigation, expected by May 2027, may propose cloud-specific amendments to the DMA obligations. <\/p>\n

Designating AWS and Microsoft Azure as gatekeepers for cloud-computing\u00a0services will have limited regulatory impact unless and until the DMA is updated with cloud\u00a0specific obligations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, unlike traditional EU competition law, the DMA does not sanction specific anti competitive behaviour such as restrictive cloud licensing terms. <\/p>\n

Instead, the DMA can impose\u00a0cloud-specific remedies \u2013 such a requiring gatekeepers to facilitate switching and multi homing \u2013 that promote contestability and fairness. <\/p>\n

When customers can easily switch providers,\u00a0 gatekeepers lose the ability to \u2018lock-in\u2019 users with onerous or restrictive licensing terms. For\u00a0 example, if a gatekeeper\u2019s licensing terms made switching costly or complex, the commission\u00a0could then intervene to enforce the DMA obligations. <\/p>\n

In this way, the DMA could indirectly curb restrictive licensing practices by imposing obligations that make restrictive terms\u00a0 ineffective and give customers real alternatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slow but not sure\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By using the DMA\u2019s market investigation tool, the commission is signalling that\u00a0certain cloud providers, in particular Microsoft and AWS, must prepare for a new era of\u00a0 regulatory obligations. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, current DMA remedies require further adaptation and\u00a0 tailoring to address some of the most complained about anti-competitive practices in cloud,\u00a0particularly Microsoft\u2019s restrictive licensing practices. <\/p>\n

Until cloud-specific DMA remedies arrive however, anti-competitive conduct in cloud markets can continue with impunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last November, following years of complaints of anti-competitive behaviour in cloud\u00a0computing markets, the European Commission opened three market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,220437,220434,220432,220435,220433,220436],"class_list":{"0":"post-943557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-typedefinedterm","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-identifier30","13":"tag-identifier4381","14":"tag-namebig-tech","15":"tag-namedigital","16":"tag-termcodebig-tech","17":"tag-termcodedigital"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116532779636019270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}