EU shifts DMA pressure toward AI and cloud

The European Commission is using its first Digital Markets Act review to put more pressure on AI and cloud markets.

Reuters reported on 28 April that EU regulators will now turn more of the DMA focus toward cloud services and artificial intelligence. The immediate trigger is the Commission's first formal review of the DMA, where it says the regulation remains fit for purpose after its first two years of application.

The factual baseline matters. The DMA already applies to gatekeepers such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft. According to Reuters, the Commission says the rules have made it easier for users to transfer data and given device makers more interoperability with major operating systems. The next phase is clearer: AI and cloud.

What is new is not that Europe regulates Big Tech. What is new is that AI services and cloud infrastructure are being pulled more explicitly into the DMA logic. EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said, according to Reuters, that the DMA was designed to be future-proof and adapt to emerging challenges, “for example in AI and cloud”. The Commission will examine whether some AI services should be designated as virtual assistant core platform services, and it is reviewing whether Amazon and Microsoft should be labelled gatekeepers for cloud computing services.

For Norwegian executives, this is an architecture and procurement issue. Many AI strategies are now being built tightly around one hyperscaler, one identity platform and one assistant layer. If the EU pushes more interoperability, portability and contestability in cloud and AI, buyers may gain leverage. But the compliance burden also rises: where is the data, which models are used, what integrations create lock-in, and how can the organisation switch supplier without stopping operations?

CIOs should read this as a regulatory direction of travel, not an instant technical change. New DMA measures will take time. Still, contracts signed now should be robust in a more regulated European AI and cloud market. Buyers should require exit rights, clear data-processing terms, price protections, and practical export options for configuration, logs, prompt data and agent workflows.

For boards, the question is simple: do we have an AI platform strategy, or are we just accumulating dependency? If the answer is the latter, EU regulation can become both help and cost. It may return market power to customers, but only to organisations that understand their own architecture well enough to use it.

Sources: Reuters, 28 April 2026. European Commission DMA review: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/review-highlights-digital-markets-act-remains-fit-purpose-and-has-positive-impact-2026-04-28_en