Last November, following years of complaints of anti-competitive behaviour in cloud computing markets, the European Commission opened three market investigations using the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

This is the first time the DMA will be used to regulate cloud computing and so this is uncharted territory.

The question is whether the commission will be able to remedy the most egregious anti-competitive practices in cloud computing using its DMA powers, in particular restrictive software licensing practices. 

When it comes to digital services regulation, cloud computing is the forgotten ‘core platform service’ (CPS) among a list of selected digital services regulated by the DMA.

Unlike all other CPS, the commission has taken years to open market investigations into cloud computing. 

Two investigations are now assessing whether Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure respectively should be designated as ‘gatekeepers’, subjecting them to specific regulatory obligations.

The third investigation is broader, assessing whether the DMA can tackle practices that limit competitiveness and fairness in the cloud computing sector.  

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 significant competition issues — mainly due to market concentration between AWS and Microsoft  and switching barriers.

Over the last four years, competition authorities – Japan’s Fair Trade  Commission in 2022, the French Autorité de la Concurrence [Competition Authority] in 2023, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) in 2024, the OECD and the UK’s Competition and Markets  Authority (CMA) in 2025 – have expressed similar concerns that AWS and Microsoft’s control over data and infrastructure in cloud markets creates high barriers to entry for smaller players, limited interoperability, high switching costs and customer lock-in effects.

In addition, restrictive software licensing practices by Microsoft have been identified as restricting competition in cloud markets by the UK’s CMA, and, since 2024, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been investigating Microsoft for anti-competitive licensing practices in the cloud. 

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

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

Google also made a complaint to the European Commission about Microsoft imposing higher costs for running its software on competitor clouds.

This complaint was withdrawn in November 2025, with the expectation that the DMA investigation  into cloud computing would address these practices. 

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

In contrast, the DMA market investigations address whether ex-ante regulation – the DMA  regulatory regime – applies to a gatekeeper in cloud markets.

If AWS and Azure are designated as gatekeepers, they will face the pre-defined obligations in Articles 5 and 6 of the DMA: for example, prohibitions on self-preferencing, and obligations on fair access to data.

The problem is that most of the DMA’s 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. 

In the European Commission’s 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.

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

The European Commission aims to conclude the market investigations on AWS and Azure by November 2026.

If, as expected, they are designated as gatekeepers they will have six months to ensure compliance with the DMA obligations.

However, any cloud-specific regulatory remedies under the DMA are unlikely to take effect before 2028.

The final report from the third DMA investigation, expected by May 2027, may propose cloud-specific amendments to the DMA obligations.

Designating AWS and Microsoft Azure as gatekeepers for cloud-computing services will have limited regulatory impact unless and until the DMA is updated with cloud specific obligations.  

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

Instead, the DMA can impose cloud-specific remedies – such a requiring gatekeepers to facilitate switching and multi homing – that promote contestability and fairness.

When customers can easily switch providers,  gatekeepers lose the ability to ‘lock-in’ users with onerous or restrictive licensing terms. For  example, if a gatekeeper’s licensing terms made switching costly or complex, the commission could then intervene to enforce the DMA obligations.

In this way, the DMA could indirectly curb restrictive licensing practices by imposing obligations that make restrictive terms  ineffective and give customers real alternatives. 

By using the DMA’s market investigation tool, the commission is signalling that certain cloud providers, in particular Microsoft and AWS, must prepare for a new era of  regulatory obligations.

Nevertheless, current DMA remedies require further adaptation and  tailoring to address some of the most complained about anti-competitive practices in cloud, particularly Microsoft’s restrictive licensing practices.

Until cloud-specific DMA remedies arrive however, anti-competitive conduct in cloud markets can continue with impunity.