Commission moves to extend Digital Markets Act to cloud services and AI platforms

The European Commission said on April 28 that its Digital Markets Act will now focus more heavily on cloud services and artificial intelligence. (usnews.com) (ec.europa.eu) The shift came with the Commission’s first formal review of the law, published April 28, 2026, which said the DMA remains “fit for purpose” after its first two years. The report said users can move data more easily when switching services and device makers have gained more interoperability with dominant operating systems. (ec.europa.eu) (usnews.com) The Commission said its next target is to make cloud and AI markets “fairer and more contestable.” It is examining whether some AI services should be treated as virtual-assistant core platform services under the DMA. (usnews.com) (ec.europa.eu) That matters because the DMA was built to police “gatekeepers” such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft in digital markets where one company controls the main doorway. Brussels is now signaling that the same gatekeeper logic can reach beyond app stores, browsers and search into AI assistants and cloud infrastructure. (usnews.com) (ec.europa.eu) The clearest live test is Android. On April 27, the Commission sent Google preliminary findings in a DMA specification proceeding opened on January 27, 2026, and launched a public consultation on draft measures for Android interoperability. (ec.europa.eu) Those draft measures are aimed at letting third parties connect to “key capabilities” of Android, including functions that rival AI services need to work more like Google’s own tools on a phone. Interested parties have until May 13, 2026, to comment. (ec.europa.eu) Teresa Ribera, the Commission executive vice-president overseeing competition, said AI services are becoming central to how Europeans use mobile devices and that the proposed Android measures should widen user choice. Henna Virkkunen said interoperability is needed so users can pick AI services without losing functionality. (ec.europa.eu) The Commission is also investigating whether Amazon and Microsoft should be designated as gatekeepers for cloud computing services. Reuters reported that Brussels is assessing whether the DMA can tackle anti-competitive conduct in that market too. (usnews.com) Brussels did not use the review to rewrite the law’s core architecture. The Commission said it does not plan to change the gatekeeper designation criteria, the main list of obligations, or add social-network interoperability requirements now because it sees no clear demand. (usnews.com) (ec.europa.eu) Apple pushed back on the Commission’s account of the DMA’s effects, saying the review understated costs to privacy, security and innovation. The Computer & Communications Industry Association Europe also called the evaluation “unbalanced” and said it overlooked negative effects on consumers and product quality. (usnews.com) (ccianet.org) The immediate next dates are May 13 for comments on Google’s Android measures and the Commission’s ongoing cloud and AI assessments after the April 28 review. The law itself is not getting a rewrite; the targets are shifting. (ec.europa.eu 1) (ec.europa.eu 2)