Amazon and Microsoft are facing growing pressure from European regulators, with rulings and probes that could reshape how digital marketplaces and cloud services operate.
The General Court of the European Union has ruled that Amazon’s marketplace qualifies as a “very large online platform” under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
This designation subjects Amazon to the court’s strictest transparency and risk-control rules, previously applied mostly to social media giants.
The court highlighted Amazon’s scale and reach, noting that the platform influences what millions of Europeans see and purchase, amplifying risks from unsafe or misleading products.
Amazon argued that marketplaces are different from social networks and that such obligations were disproportionate.
The court rejected this, emphasising consumer protection over commercial freedom.
Amazon must now conduct annual risk checks, share data with researchers, maintain public ad archives and submit to indepfinishent audits.
The ruling highlights a key DSA principle: size, not sector, determines regulatory obligations.
Platforms with more than 45 million EU utilizers, including Amazon, Meta, Google and TikTok, fall under the “very large” category, carrying heightened accountability.
Meanwhile, the EU has launched new probes into Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to determine if the cloud providers should be considered “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Although neither currently meets the DMA’s size or utilizer thresholds, the European Commission is investigating whether their market positions act as critical gateways between businesses and consumers.
The inquiries follow recent outages that affected major services and highlight concerns about cloud sector dominance.
If designated as gatekeepers, AWS and Azure would face new obligations, including restrictions on tying, bundling and interoperability practices, with six months to comply once confirmed. Non-compliance could incur fines of up to 10% of global turnover.
Amazon and Microsoft both deffinished the competitiveness and innovation of the cloud market, emphasising that stricter rules could stifle growth and raise costs for businesses.
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