Five cloud business groups urge EU interim measures against Broadcom

BRUSSELS, July 14 (Reuters) - The Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) has joined forces with four other trade groups to urge EU antitrust regulators to suspend some business practices of U.S. chipmaker Broadcom AVGO.O, according to a joint letter seen by Reuters.

CISPE, which has nearly 50 members across Europe and counts Microsoft MSFT.O and Amazon AMZN.O as associate members, in March asked for an interim measure on its own after Broadcom last year revamped its VMware cloud service provider ecosystem, which it acquired in 2023.

CISPE's complaint prompted the European Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, to question the VMware licensing changes.

Belgium's association of digital business users Beltug, and its counterparts France's Cigref, Germany's VOICE and CIO Platform Nederland, have now joined in, accusing Broadcom of imposing steep price increases on VMware's virtualisation platform users and excluding thousands of providers from deploying and purchasing it.

"We therefore urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to act swiftly and impose interim measures now," CISPE said in their joint letter dated July 10.

They asked EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera and EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen to ensure a transition period of at least three years while regulators continue their investigation into Broadcom.

Broadcom said it disagreed with CISPE's allegations, calling it an organisation funded by large cloud service providers, or hyperscalers, which misrepresent the realities of the market.

"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," a Broadcom spokesperson said.

The European Commission confirmed receipt of the letter.