BRUSSELS

The European Commission opened three market investigations Tuesday into cloud computing services under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), focusing on whether Amazon and Microsoft should be designated as gatekeepers in the sector.

The Commission said two of the probes will assess whether Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure act as "important gateways" between businesses and consumers, despite not meeting the DMA's quantitative thresholds on company size, user numbers and market power.

A third investigation will examine whether the DMA's obligations are sufficient to address potentially unfair or anti-competitive practices in the EU cloud market.

Cloud services have become "crucial for AI development" and central to Europe's innovation and digital autonomy, the Commission noted, stressing the need for a fair and competitive environment.

Recent analyses of cloud markets indicate AWS and Azure maintain strong positions in the sector. The Commission will assess whether characteristics of the cloud industry, including scale, network effects and switching costs, further strengthen their roles.

If the investigation concludes that AWS and Azure function as key gateways, cloud computing would be added to the list of core platform services for which Amazon and Microsoft are already designated as gatekeepers.

The third probe will gather input from market participants to determine whether the DMA's current obligations effectively prevent practices such as limited interoperability between cloud services, restricted access to data for business users, tying and bundling, and potentially imbalanced contractual terms.

The Commission wants to complete the investigations into AWS and Azure within 12 months. Should the Commission designate the services as gatekeepers, Amazon and Microsoft will have six months to ensure full compliance with DMA requirements.

The DMA seeks to ensure fair and contestable digital markets by imposing obligations on major platforms identified as gatekeepers. Even companies that fall below quantitative thresholds can be designated as gatekeepers if they control important gateways for business users.