Europe’s leading cloud trade group filed a competition complaint with the European Commission (EC) against Broadcom over ongoing VMware objections.

The grievance from the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) centers around Broadcom’s shuttering of the Advantage Partner Program for VMware Cloud Service Providers (VCSP). Revealed in January, some partners on the program were told Broadcom would not be renewing their contracts in favor of an invite-only system. The firm’s White Label model, set up to allow smaller cloud service providers (CSPs) to work through Pinnacle or Premier partners, was also retired in Europe, reportedly leaving hundreds affected.

In response, CISPE filed a complaint with the EC Directorate-General for Competition, claiming Broadcom’s actions will see many European communication service providers (CSPs) forced to exit the market.

“[Its] unilateral decision removed all but a tiny minority of hand selected partners and excluded most European CSPs from selling VMware products. As a result, customers are deprived of access and choice of VMware software, and many vendors are seeing significant proportions of their revenue eliminated overnight," CISPE noted in its press release. “It will also create virtual monopolies in some markets with vendors entirely dependent on Broadcom. Far from building Europe’s sovereign cloud, as Broadcom claims it is doing, this action is destroying European strategic autonomy and increasing dominance on overseas providers.”

CISPE called for the immediate suspension of Broadcom’s VCSP termination efforts, the reintroduction of the White Label model, and “explicit protections against retaliation from Broadcom” with enforced fines to ensure compliance with its terms.

“With the termination of the Broadcom program allowing access to VMware virtualization software, businesses – both cloud providers and their customers – are being irreparably damaged by Broadcom’s unfair actions, which we believe are illegal,” CISPE Secretary General Francisco Mingorance added. “After imposing outrageous and unjustified price hikes immediately following the acquisition of VMware, Broadcom is now applying the ‘coup de grâce.' We need urgent intervention to force them to change. The only way to stop bullies is to stand up to them.”

CISPE's salvo

The complaint comes after CISPE last October called out Broadcom over its licensing changes citing anticompetitive pricing in the wake of its VMware acquisition, which has seen users affected by migration issues and reported price increases.

The organization claimed to have contacted Broadcom for a resolution through various demands, including guaranteeing a minimum six-month notice in clear terms for contractual, pricing, or term changes prior to renewal, as well as addressing what it called the substantial total price increase stemming from its “forced bundling” of VMware products.

In a statement provided to SDxCentral, Broadcom said it strongly disagreed with CISPE's allegations made to the EU General Court last summer over the bloc’s alleged failure to address market dominance concerns prior to its VMware takeover.

“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," Broadcom noted in its statement.