BRUSSELS, March 19 (Reuters) - Lobbying group Cloud
Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe on Thursday urged EU
antitrust regulators to temporarily stop Broadcom ( AVGO ) from
ending its VMware Cloud Service Provider programme in Europe,
ramping up its fight against the U.S. tech company.
CISPE, which has nearly 50 members across Europe and counts
Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) as associate members,
sued the European Commission last year for approving Broadcom's ( AVGO )
acquisition of VMware in 2023, saying the EU competition
watchdog had failed to examine the deal properly.
It took its latest grievance about Broadcom ( AVGO ) to the
Commission after the company revamped its VMware cloud service
provider ecosystem late last year and asked for an interim
measure.
"In January 2026 Broadcom ( AVGO ) signalled the termination of its
VMware Cloud Service Provider program in Europe. This unilateral
decision removed all but a tiny minority of hand selected
partners and excluded most European CSPs from selling VMware
products," CISPE said in a statement.
"Both cloud providers and their customers - are being
irreparably damaged by Broadcom's ( AVGO ) unfair actions," CISPE
Secretary General Francisco Mingorance said.
The Commission confirmed receipt of the complaint.
"We are currently assessing this complaint in line with our
standard procedures," a spokesperson said.
Broadcom ( AVGO ) did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
CISPE said an EU interim measure should immediately suspend
Broadcom's ( AVGO ) termination of its VCSP partner programme, allow them
to be readmitted to the programme, and include protection
measures against retaliation from Broadcom ( AVGO ).