CISPE Takes European Commission to Court to Annul Approval of Broadcom’s Acquisition of VMware

The Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE), representing Europe’s leading sovereign cloud infrastructure providers, filed a formal appeal before the European General Court challenging the European Commission’s decision to approve Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. CISPE is seeking an annulment of the Commission’s approval of that deal.

Legal Challenge Based on Errors in Law and Assessment
The Commission’s official summary of its decision was published on May 13, 2025; in it the Commission acknowledged that the acquisition posed significant risks to competition. However, it failed to impose any conditions on Broadcom to prevent a concentration of dominance or to mitigate the potential abuse of such a position. As such CISPE is claiming errors in law and manifest failures by the Commission in the competitive assessment process which are significant enough to seek an annulment of the decision. It has filed these claims with the General Court within the allowed appeal timeframe.

Exorbitant Costs and Exclusion of Smaller Cloud Providers
Since finalising the acquisition, Broadcom has unilaterally terminated existing contracts – often with only weeks’ notice – and imposed onerous new licensing conditions. These include drastic cost increases (sometimes exceeding tenfold) and mandatory multi-year commitments for access to essential VMware software.

In July, Broadcom further escalated the situation by announcing new restrictive licensing terms that may exclude smaller cloud providers, including many CISPE members. These providers could now be barred from purchasing and reselling VMware-based cloud services – critical tools for delivering secure, flexible, and European cloud solutions.

Longstanding Concerns Ignored by the Commission
For the past two years, CISPE has consistently raised alarms with the European Commission -particularly with DG Competition – over Broadcom’s unfair software licensing practices. Despite numerous meetings and thorough responses to detailed requests for information, no substantive action was taken to support either European cloud service providers or their customers. Repeated efforts by CISPE to engage constructively with Broadcom and secure fairer access terms for its members were met with refusal and disregard.

“The dominance of VMware software in the virtualisation market means that unfair new licensing terms enforced by Broadcom affect almost every European organisation using cloud technology,” said Francisco Mingorance, secretary general, CISPE. “Not just cloud service providers, but hospitals, universities, and municipal authorities are all now facing unaffordable bills and rigid long-term commitments that jeopardise the flexibility and affordability of their cloud infrastructure. The Commission was warned this would happen, yet it stood by. It must now reconsider its decision.”