The European Commission is preparing to shift more of the Digital Markets Act's enforcement attention toward cloud computing and certain artificial intelligence services, saying recent progress under the law has helped create fairer conditions for businesses and consumers.
The DMA currently applies to a group of large tech firms - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, ByteDance, Meta Platforms and Microsoft - imposing a set of obligations intended to prevent those designated as "gatekeepers" from abusing market power. According to a Commission report published on Tuesday, the rules, which became applicable in May 2023, have already produced measurable improvements in the digital marketplace.
In particular, the Commission said the DMA has made it easier for users to move their data when switching to competing services and devices, and it has enabled device makers to achieve greater interoperability with major operating systems. Those outcomes are cited as the basis for looking at how the DMA could be applied to other fast-evolving digital domains.
"The DMA was designed to be future-proof and adapt to emerging challenges, for example in AI and cloud," European Union antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said in a statement.
Building on those developments, the Commission said its next priority is to examine whether cloud services and AI offerings can be made "fairer and more contestable" under the DMA framework. As part of that work, regulators will assess whether specific AI services merit designation as virtual assistant core platform services.
Regulators have also opened inquiries into cloud computing. They are considering whether Amazon and Microsoft ought to be designated as gatekeepers for their cloud services under the DMA, and whether the legislation can be used effectively to address anticompetitive practices in that sector.
The Commission emphasised that it will not force designated social networks to interoperate with one another, despite calls from some companies for cross-network compatibility. "There is no clear demand for interoperability between designated social networks," the EU competition enforcer said, while adding that it will continue to monitor social network services.
At the same time, the Commission said it does not plan to alter the criteria used to determine which firms are designated as DMA gatekeepers, nor to change the existing list of obligations and prohibitions imposed on them. Regulators judged that the current framework remains fit for purpose.
Not all stakeholders welcomed the report. Apple criticised the Commission's assessment, arguing that it overlooked potential downsides of DMA-driven changes to how services are made available in the EU. Apple said the report ignored impacts on user privacy, security and innovation, and warned of specific risks to EU users including greater exposure to harmful content through alternative distribution channels, disruption of a seamless user experience, sharing of highly sensitive information with untrusted third parties, and delays in receiving the latest features and technologies available elsewhere.
Consumer advocates also weighed in. Pan-European consumer lobby BEUC urged the Commission to strengthen enforcement efforts, particularly as regulators extend oversight into newer digital areas such as AI and cloud services.
The Commission's announcement signals a potential expansion of DMA scrutiny into parts of the digital economy that underpin numerous sectors, from enterprise IT services and cloud-native startups to consumer-facing AI tools and devices that rely on cloud infrastructure. Regulators will now evaluate whether the DMA's mechanisms can be applied to these services in ways that preserve the gains already achieved while addressing any sector-specific competitive concerns.
Context note: The Commission report referenced in this article was published on Tuesday and reflects the regulator's early assessment of the DMA's impact since it became applicable in May 2023.