BRUSSELS, July 14 – The Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), alongside four other trade groups, has urged EU antitrust regulators to impose interim measures on U.S. chipmaker Broadcom. This call follows Broadcom's revamp of its VMware cloud service provider ecosystem, which it acquired in 2023.

CISPE, representing nearly 50 members across Europe including associate members Microsoft and Amazon, initially requested an interim measure in March. The complaint led the European Commission, the EU's competition enforcer, to scrutinize the VMware licensing changes.

Joining CISPE in the appeal are Belgium's Beltug, France's Cigref, Germany's VOICE, and CIO Platform Nederland. They accuse Broadcom of imposing steep price increases on users of VMware's virtualization platform and excluding thousands of providers from deploying and purchasing it.

In a joint letter dated July 10, CISPE stated, "We therefore urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to act swiftly and impose interim measures now." The groups also requested EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera and EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen to ensure a transition period of at least three years while the investigation continues.

Broadcom has rejected the allegations, describing CISPE as an organization funded by large cloud service providers, or hyperscalers, that misrepresent market realities. A Broadcom spokesperson said, "We continue to be committed to investing significantly in our European VMware Cloud Service Provider partners (VCSPs) helping them offer alternatives to the hyperscalers and meet the evolving needs of European businesses and organisations."

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