Broadcom’s VMware is under the cosh yet again this week, with the firm facing a legal complaint from a trade association and with claims some customers can’t access security patches.

Bloomberg reports that the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) – the trade association that recently struck a controversial pay-as-you-go deal with Microsoft – has filed a complaint with the EU General Court over the bloc’s alleged failure to address market dominance concerns prior to Broadcom’s takeover of the software firm.

A report in The Register, meanwhile, found some customers who hold perpetual VMware licenses but no support contracts with Broadcom are unable to download security patches, with support staff unable to apply fixes for some 90 days.

The episodes are the latest in a series of tumultuous events that have dominated the discourse following Broadcom’s $69 billion takeover of VMware.

In the past week alone, the firm made yet more changes to its VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) support model, enabled longer free support timelines with fewer VCF updates, and announced changes to its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) model, which will shift to a new Cloud Service Provider program starting November 1. The Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VMware resellers remains in place.

‘Unfair licensing terms’ subject of EU lawsuit

CISPE, whose members include Vultr, AWS, and Leaseweb, filed its legal complaint, having “consistently raised alarms” with European regulators prior to Broadcom buying VMware, but to no avail.

Notably, in March 2024, the group called on officials to take action over Broadcom’s then-proposed plan to rework its licensing models. Broadcom would later shift away from perpetual licenses in favor of a standardized subscription service. The group argued that the changes hurt members who rely on licensing VMware products.

The acquisition was cleared by the European Commission in July 2023, though there were rumblings of a potential reexamination of the deal last summer after complaints from groups like CISPE caught the attention of regulators.

Nothing ultimately occurred, and Broadcom would go on to aggressively revamp VMware with subscription bundling and partner program cuts.

CISPE isn’t backing down, though, filing suit with arguments that the deal has led to price increases and ultimately limited competition by turning VMware products relied on by European businesses into a bottleneck that forces users to pay up or get out.

“The dominance of VMware software in the virtualization market means that unfair new licensing terms enforced by Broadcom affect almost every European organization using cloud technology,” Francisco Mingorance, secretary general of CISPE, told Bloomberg. “The commission was warned this would happen, yet it stood by. It must now reconsider its decision.”

In a statement provided to SDxCentral, a company spokesperson said: “Broadcom strongly disagrees with these allegations. The European Commission, along with twelve other jurisdictions around the world, approved our acquisition of VMware following a thorough merger review process, and we will uphold the commitments made to the Commission at that time.

"We continue to bring our customers better choices and solutions to address their most complex technology challenges.”

Just last week, Broadcom published a blog post affirming its commitment to the European market.

“We are committed to delivering innovation and ensuring our customers realise the full value of their Broadcom investment,” wrote Luigi Freguia, Broadcom’s President for EMEA.

“By expanding our ecosystem strategically – with qualified, high-impact partners – we are better positioned to serve a diverse and growing customer base and ensure every engagement delivers real benefits.”

Legacy users unable to access security patches for months

Last April, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan stressed in one of several blog-based attempts to ease concerns over the acquisition that users would have “free access to zero-day security patches for supported versions of vSphere” with other VMware products to be added over time.

But, according to this week's Reg report, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

The outlet spoke to several 'VMusers' who said they’re unable to download software patches via their portal pages. One, who reportedly hasn’t been able to access patches since May, had even reached out to Broadcom support staff, who replied: “Recent changes to our support portal, related to entitlement checking, will cause [a] delay in making patches available to customers with expired entitlements.”

A VMware spokesperson told The Register that a separate patch delivery cycle will be made available to non-entitled customers, but at a later, unspecified date.

While Broadcom has reworked VMware licenses so that the existing perpetual holders receive only the bare minimum of support once their maintenance agreements expire, it may not apply universally.

In June, a Dutch court ordered Broadcom to continue providing support to the country's water agency, even though the agency sought to switch to an alternative provider.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management had previously expressed concerns that Broadcom's refusal to offer support following the water agency's decision not to renew its VMware subscription and the subsequent changes to VMware's rules would leave the agency in a potentially precarious situation.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated Broadcom announced plans to end its channel program. To clarify, the company is transitioning its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) model to an invite-only program effective November 1, 2025. The Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VMware resellers remains active.