EU regulators launch trio of cloud market probes

Microsoft Azure and AWS don’t meet gatekeeper thresholds under the EU’s Digital Markets Act. The European Commission is assessing whether they should still qualify.

Dive Brief: 

• The European Commission launched a trio of investigations Monday, two of which will assess whether Amazon and Microsoft should be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act over the market reach of AWS and Microsoft Azure. The commission will also consider rewriting the DMA’s rules to better address competition in cloud computing. 
• The cloud offerings do not meet size, user number or market position thresholds for Amazon and Microsoft to merit gatekeeper designation under the DMA, according to the commission. However, the investigation will consider whether the cloud services act as critical gateways between businesses and consumers despite not meeting those thresholds. 
• “Cloud computing services are vital for Europe’s competitiveness and resilience,” Teresa Ribera, EVP for clean, just and ...