“In January 2026, Broadcom signaled the termination of its VMware Cloud Service Provider program in Europe,” CIPSE said in a statement. This unilateral decision eliminated almost a small minority of carefully selected partners and excluded the majority of European CSPs from selling VMware products.”
In its complaint, CISPE also accused Broadcom of “ongoing abuse,” citing steep price increases (up to tenfold, with some customers reporting increases of up to 900 percent) along with commitment and product bundling requirements based on projected rather than actual usage, The Register reported.
“After imposing outrageous and unjustified price increases immediately after the VMware acquisition, Broadcom is now applying the ‘knockout blow’. We need urgent intervention to force them to change,” CISPE Secretary General Francisco Mingorance said, according to the publication.
In a statement responding to CISPE’s antitrust complaint, Broadcom said:
Broadcom strongly disagrees with accusations from CISPE, an organization funded by hyperscalers, that they misrepresent market realities. We remain committed to investing significantly in our European VMware cloud service provider partners…helping them deliver alternatives to hyperscalers and meet the changing needs of European businesses and organizations.
CISPE currently has 50 members. It also names hyperscalers Amazon Web Services and Microsoft as “adherent members,” which CISPE says do not have voting rights and are prohibited from participating in certain activities.
In July, CISPE filed an appeal with the European General Court in an attempt to overturn the EC’s approval of Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. That case is ongoing.
