The European Commission has preliminarily designated Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act using Article 3(8) authority. This regulatory action could force cloud providers to share intellectual property and provide access to their infrastructure, potentially impacting the operational costs and technical strategies of streaming services relying on these platforms.
This regulatory shift threatens to alter the underlying economics for streaming services that rely on AWS and Azure for global delivery. If these providers are forced to open their infrastructure or share intellectual property, the resulting operational changes could lead to increased compliance costs or technical fragmentation for platforms. Within the broader ecosystem, this move signals a transition from regulating consumer-facing apps to targeting the foundational cloud layer that powers the entire media supply chain. Industry observers should watch for the final European Commission ruling and whether the U.S. Trade Representative initiates retaliatory measures that could further complicate international streaming operations.
The European Commission's preliminary designation of AWS and Microsoft Azure as DMA gatekeepers represents an expansion of the regulation beyond its original targets. The DMA initially focused on consumer-facing platforms like Google, Meta, Apple, and Amazon's marketplace, but the Commission invoked Article 3(8) to designate cloud infrastructure services despite neither meeting standard quantitative thresholds, signaling regulators now view foundational cloud layers as essential gateways requiring the same interoperability obligations applied to app stores and search engines. This marks the first time the DMA has been applied to infrastructure-as-a-service providers rather than consumer platforms.
For streaming companies, the business implications extend beyond compliance costs. Bitmovin announced in May 2026 that MUBI selected its VOD Encoder through AWS Marketplace, migrating from legacy on-premises infrastructure to managed cloud encoding with support for 3-pass encoding, UHD, and multi-codec strategy across AVC, HEVC, and AV1. Deals like this, where encoding vendors distribute through cloud marketplaces, could face disruption if gatekeeper obligations force changes to marketplace terms, revenue sharing, or API access conditions. The Commission's final ruling will determine whether cloud providers must offer data portability and interoperability that could alter how streaming platforms architect their encoding, CDN, and analytics pipelines.
Competing video infrastructure vendors are already positioning around cloud neutrality concerns. Mux published findings showing AI workflows now operate across the full video stack, with 98 percent of video developers using AI or ML tools, many of which depend on cloud GPU instances from AWS and Azure for training and inference. If gatekeeper obligations require these providers to offer equivalent access terms to competing AI inference services, the cost structure for video AI workloads could shift materially. The broader question for streaming buyers is whether EU digital sovereignty package enforcement will create a more level playing field among cloud providers or introduce fragmentation that complicates multi-cloud strategies already common in video delivery architectures.
The European Commission has designated Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act, despite them not meeting standard quantitative thresholds. By using Article 3(8) authority, regulators aim to force these cloud providers to share infrastructure and intellectual property, potentially impacting global streaming service delivery costs.
The European Commission used Article 3(8) authority to designate them as essential gateways based on their market impact, even though they did not meet standard quantitative thresholds for revenue or user numbers.
The designation could force cloud providers to share intellectual property and grant competitors access to their proprietary operating systems and infrastructure.
U.S. lawmakers have proposed Section 301 trade investigations in response to the regulatory pressure from the European Commission.
AWS currently holds a 28% global market share, while Microsoft Azure maintains a 21% share.
Add StreamingMeme as a preferred source on Google to see more of our streaming news at the top of your Search results.
Add as preferred source
