June 29, 2026

The EU Wants to Make It Easier to Leave AWS and Azure, Targets Amazon and Microsoft’s Cloud Units Under New ‘Gatekeeper’ Regulations

By Kieran Devlin

The European Commission moved last week to designate Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure as “gatekeepers” under its new Digital Markets Act. This is the first time the EU’s competition framework has reached cloud infrastructure rather than consumer-facing platforms like search engines and app stores. It could signal a major challenge to traditional vendor lock-in strategies.

The preliminary finding, published on 25 June following a seven-month investigation, would impose strict obligations on both companies if confirmed. These include interoperability requirements, data portability rights, limits on self-preferencing, and restrictions on the bundling practices that make switching providers so expensive in practice. A final decision is expected before the end of 2026. Afterwards, designated companies would have six months to comply.

The Commission was direct about what drove the finding. Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, noted:

“Cloud services have become a cornerstone of Europe’s economy — and a prerequisite for AI — with over half of EU businesses now relying on them.”

It also cited AWS and Azure’s combined share of roughly 65–70% of EU cloud revenue in Q1 2026, per Synergy Research Group data. It found that both platforms benefit from “vast and entrenched user bases and appear to benefit from lock-in effects and high switching costs, in addition to a large ecosystem.”

Amazon and Microsoft have both pushed back. Amazon argued the ruling risks “deterring European investment and innovation” and that existing Data Act regulation is sufficient. Microsoft declined to contest the lock-in evidence directly, instead flagging a gap in scope: “We remain concerned that ignoring the growing power of Google Cloud and Gemini will tilt the market in a harmful way.” That framing suggests Azure’s legal challenge will argue market definition rather than dispute the underlying facts.

Non-compliance, if the designation is confirmed, carries fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover.

What the CX and Cloud Market Is Reading Into It  

Looking between the seams of the story, there are arguably signposts about future AI regulation. The Commission explicitly cited AI tools and AI-cloud partnerships as a decisive factor in procurement lock-in. The argument is that once enterprises build on Azure OpenAI Service or Amazon Bedrock, switching cloud providers becomes commercially and architecturally out of reach.

Patrick Steinmetz, Sales Director of European risk intelligence business QuoIntelligence, said on LinkedIn:

“With over half of EU businesses now relying on cloud, and Brussels framing it as a prerequisite for AI and a cornerstone of tech sovereignty, this is a clear push toward fairer, more open, and more interoperable cloud markets in Europe — and a reminder that European digital resilience increasingly depends on reducing single-vendor lock-in.”

Both companies have already made concessions that look, in retrospect, like positioning. AWS dropped data transfer charges for departing customers in 2025. Microsoft cut Azure bandwidth fees after a UK antitrust probe. Neither move was framed as regulatory compliance at the time.

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What the Challenge to Vendor Lock-In Means for CX Buyers  

The most pressing issue is whether this changes anything before the final ruling. It may, in contract negotiations. Any organisation renewing cloud agreements and building contact centre AI, CRM, or workforce management tooling on top of them is negotiating in a market Brussels has formally identified as uncompetitive. That is potentially useful leverage, even before obligations attach.

Notably, an Open Cloud Coalition spokesperson told The Register following the news:

“Our members welcome the Commission’s preliminary finding. We particularly note the finding that existing customer lock-in may fuel enterprise AI — a development that mirrors long-standing market concerns over Microsoft’s licensing and ecosystem practices.”

A confirmed designation would add enforceable data portability, interoperability with competing platforms, and limits on AI self-preferencing. Full compliance timelines could stretch to mid-2027. However, the next contract you sign with AWS or Azure should already assume the designation could land before the term ends.