Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) has issued its third European Cloud Competition Observatory (ECCO) report, praising Microsoft’s licensing concessions while accusing Broadcom of worsening anti-competitive practices.

The European cloud vendor forum has 38 members, according to its website. Amazon Web Services used to be on its board, but the cloud giant exited after the trade association changed the rules for admission to block non-European cloud vendors with annual revenues exceeding €10 billion.

This is the third ECCO report on Broadcom. The first was published in February 2025, and the second came in May 2025, when the majority of CISPE members had entered into new licensing agreements. At the time, it was noted [PDF] that “these agreements were often signed under significant pressure, influenced by a lack of alternatives, abrupt contract terminations, and financial incentives such as rebates for longer-term commitments.”

The situation has not improved since May. On July 24, CISPE filed an action challenging the European Commission’s decision on July 12, 2023, to approve Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware.

The latest report criticises the “unilateral market distorting program changes” and “significant new forms of unfair licensing behaviour being imposed by Broadcom on European cloud providers and their customers.”

Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and the subsequent price hikes haven’t gone down well with all customers, to the point that many have been considering alternatives. Thierry Carrez, general manager of the foundation behind one such alternative, OpenStack said: “Broadcom’s handling of VMware is a good example of the risk of trusting your infrastructure software fate to a single vendor. Those companies can be bought, can change direction, can change licensing terms anytime they want.”

“Broadcom continues to tighten the screws on Europe’s cloud infrastructure sector,” said CISPE. “A lack of action from EU competition authorities to check the worsening anti-competitive behaviours of Broadcom has led CISPE to challenge the European Commission’s initial approval of the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom.”

The org also fired a warning shot at SAP and Citrix over lock-in and abuse of dominance. The latter, CISPE noted, “is potentially following a similar route to Broadcom in unilateral and dramatic changes to licensing terms.”

Still, Microsoft got a pat on the back, even though, a few short months ago, it earned CISPE’s ire for failing to deliver a special version of Azure for EU cloud providers, a condition set by the group for dropping an antitrust complaint. In July, CISPE wrung a concession from Microsoft on lower licensing fees, but a complaint about the technical tie-in between Entra ID and Microsoft 365 remains. As such, the report notes “there is still work to do.”

“Similarly, other hyperscalers were not covered under the agreement with Microsoft.”

“It doesn’t come as a huge surprise after Microsoft joined CISPE earlier this year,” Frank Karlitschek, CEO and founder, Nextcloud, said of Redmond’s positive portrayal. “We need industry associations that pursue benefits for the wider market and ensure a level playing field.”

Nicky Stewart, senior advisor to the Open Cloud Coalition said: “Unfair software licensing practices continue to distort Europe’s cloud ecosystem – restricting customer choice, locking in users, and protecting entrenched monopolies at the expense of innovation.

“The ECCO process is no replacement for formal antitrust enforcement. Without real authority, it cannot deliver accountability. Europe’s cloud market urgently needs decisive regulatory action to restore fair competition.”

The ECCO group was set up in 2024 to monitor cloud licensing. It came about following a deal with Microsoft to avoid a formal European Commission probe over alleged anti-competitive behaviour regarding the cost of running Microsoft’s software outside its datacenters.