EU regulators say Amazon Web Services and Microsoft cloud should be treated as ‘gatekeepers’ under new tech rules

European Union antitrust regulators said Amazon and Microsoft cloud-computing services should be designated as “gatekeepers” under the EU’s technology rules designed to curb the market power of large digital companies, according to an article published Thursday by Yahoo Finance.

The designation targets services that the EU believes are deeply embedded in how businesses operate online. In practice, a “gatekeeper” status brings additional obligations intended to make it harder for dominant firms to steer customers or business partners toward their own services, and to limit gatekeepers’ ability to restrict rivals’ reach.

For Amazon, the EU focus is on Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud platform that hosts applications for businesses ranging from startups to large enterprises. For Microsoft, the EU focus is on the company’s cloud computing services, which include cloud infrastructure and related software offerings used by customers for hosting and developing digital products.

The EU’s gatekeeper framework is part of a broader effort by regulators to apply competition rules to digital markets. The goal is to address concerns that some large platforms can act as chokepoints for access to cloud resources, software distribution, and related services, even when competition laws traditionally relied on narrower definitions of markets.

While the Yahoo report describes the regulators’ view that both cloud providers should be brought under the gatekeeper umbrella, it does not, in the materials provided here, spell out the specific reasoning the EU used for each designation, nor does it detail which individual Microsoft or Amazon services are covered at the level of product names and technical boundaries.

For Microsoft, the move would add compliance requirements on top of an already heavily regulated environment across EU competition and data rules. The company has publicly emphasized its cloud strategy and its approach to governance in areas like security and reliability, but whether and how it adjusts its cloud offerings in response to EU gatekeeper obligations was not detailed in the Yahoo article provided for this write-up.

From a sector standpoint, cloud computing is increasingly treated as core infrastructure for the digital economy. Gatekeeper-style obligations, if applied to the largest providers, could affect everything from how customers onboard services to how competitors interoperate or advertise within the same ecosystem.

Still, important details remain unclear. The Yahoo report, as referenced in this editorial packet, does not provide the full scope of the designation, the exact deadlines for compliance, or any specific conditions the European Commission may impose beyond the gatekeeper label. It also does not indicate whether either company is expected to challenge the designation, or what transitional steps they would be required to take.

Over the next few months, market participants will likely focus on official confirmation of which services are covered, what obligations the Commission attaches to each designation, and how Microsoft and Amazon respond operationally. Even without immediate monetary penalties, the compliance burden alone could influence product roadmaps, partner agreements, and how cloud competitors position their services in the EU market.