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Brussels, 2nd November 2026. The President of the Sixth Chamber of the General Court of the European Union has ruled that the identities of the CISPE members supporting the association’s action against the European Commission’s decision to clear Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware (Case T‑503/25) must remain confidential vis‑à‑vis Broadcom. The order 23rd October 2026 clears the way for the case to proceed. 

Broadcom had asked the Court to lift the redactions in CISPE’s application to the European General Court, arguing that it needed the information to contest the admissibility of the action. The Court rejected the request in full, upholding the confidentiality claims of both CISPE and the European Commission. The risk of retaliation identified by CISPE as an Association is, in the Court’s words:

“Exacerbated by Broadcom’s hostile conduct, which was noted by the Commission [which] stated that, [Broadcom is an] ‘aggressive player’ on the market, inter alia in its relations with its business partners. Even the identification of those members of the applicant that are no longer customers of VMware entails a risk of retaliation and reprisals, given that Broadcom holds a dominant position in the market.”

CISPE brought its action in July 2025 because it considers that the European Commission erred in law and in fact when it cleared, without conditions, Broadcom’s purchase of the dominant supplier of server virtualisation software, on which thousands of European cloud providers and their customers depend. CISPE warned that Broadcom would use that dependence to rewrite licensing terms and reshape the market in its favour, and that the Commission, although aware of the risk, neither examined it seriously nor imposed remedies.

That risk has since materialised. Broadcom started with unprecedented price increases and commercial program changes in 2024 and has thereafter closed its cloud partner programme to all but a hand‑picked group.  The excluded providers had built their businesses by reselling VMware software and deploying it on their own infrastructure, in competition with Broadcom’s chosen channel. Now, as per the changed Program Rules of Broadcom they must transfer their customers to a specially selected provider that can be a competitor designated by Broadcom, sell their infrastructure to one such selected provider, or wind down.

Francisco Mingorance, Secretary General of CISPE, said:

“This is a good day for CISPE and for the rule of law in Europe. The case matters even more today than when we filed it. In the three years since the European Commission waved this deal through without conditions, Broadcom has dismantled the European VMware channel. Of roughly 1,000 cloud providers in Europe that resold VMware software and ran it on their own infrastructure, less than 20 remain. Those excluded have until 31 March 2027 to sell their infrastructure or their customers to a competitor chosen by Broadcom, or to close. This is the foreclosure the Commission was warned about.”

Notes to editors

• Case T‑503/25, CISPE v Commission, General Court of the European Union. Order of the President of the Sixth Chamber of 23/10/2026is publicly available on the Court’s website: https://juris.curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=316626&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=17147844
• Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware in November 2023 after unconditional clearance by the Commission (Case M.10806). In January 2026 it notified cloud partners that their contracts would not be renewed after 26 January 2026, with a wind‑down to 31 March 2027. Market figures: Broadcom partner communications and executives’ public statements (LeMagIT, 4 May 2026).

About CISPE

Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) is the Brussels‑based association of European cloud infrastructure providers, whose members operate data centres and cloud services across the EU for millions of businesses and public bodies. www.cispe.cloud