EU to soon classify AWS and Azure as gatekeepers under DSA
The European Union is reportedly set to classify Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure as "gatekeepers" under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This designation would subject the two cloud providers to stricter rules regarding competition, transparency, and data access within the EU's digital market.
Background
- The EU's **Digital Services Act (DSA)** is a law imposing stricter rules on very large online platforms (e.g., content moderation, transparency, risk management). The **Digital Markets Act (DMA)** is a separate but related law targeting "gatekeeper" platforms with dominant market power (e.g., Apple, Google, Meta) to prevent anti-competitive behavior.
- **AWS (Amazon Web Services)** and **Azure (Microsoft Azure)** are the two largest cloud computing providers globally, offering infrastructure (servers, storage, networking) that many websites and apps rely on.
- The EU is reportedly planning to classify AWS and Azure as "gatekeepers" under the DSA — a designation that would subject them to stricter obligations regarding transparency, risk assessment, and handling of illegal content and disinformation on their infrastructure.
- This matters because cloud providers have largely avoided such scrutiny; classifying them as gatekeepers would force them to take more responsibility for content running on their servers, potentially reshaping how cloud services operate in Europe.