Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) has formally responded in court against the European Commission’s (EC) approval of Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware.

In its submission to the General Court of the European Union (EU), CISPE argues that the Commission failed to adequately assess risks associated with the merger.

The organisation contends that Broadcom plans to leverage VMware’s established position in server virtualisation software, potentially leading to significant price increases for customers.

CISPE highlighted a statement from Broadcom’s CEO, who had committed to elevating VMware’s standalone EBITDA from approximately $4.7–5bn to $8.5bn within three years following the merger.

The cloud trade group claims such growth is unlikely to be realised through organic market expansion or efficiencies alone, given the industry’s annual growth rate of 5–8%. Instead, the body suggested that Broadcom may resort to aggressive pricing and bundling strategies targeting VMware’s existing client base.

Broadcom finalised its acquisition of VMware in November 2023. The transaction, valued at around $61bn in cash and stock, was initially announced in May 2022.

CISPE points out that Broadcom financed this deal by raising about $28.4bn in new debt and assuming roughly $8bn of VMware’s existing debt. According to CISPE, this financial strategy might incentivise Broadcom to accelerate revenue extraction through intensified monetisation practices.

Despite warnings from stakeholders, including customers and industry groups, CISPE claims the Commission had ignored potential risks such as significant price hikes and reinforced contractual lock-ins. Since the merger, CISPE notes an increase in prices and mandatory multi-year subscriptions for VMware products has negatively affected European cloud providers and their clients.

CISPE secretary general Francisco Mingorence said: “The Commission looked at this merger through half-closed eyes and declared it safe. By rubber stamping the deal, Brussels handed Broadcom a blank cheque to raise prices, lock-in and squeeze customers.

“Broadcom has, predictably cashed this cheque with interest. This was a failure of oversight by the regulator with real world costs for Europe’s cloud sector and every organisation that depends upon it.”

CISPE’s challenge follows the EC’s defence of its 2023 approval of the Broadcom-VMware merger. The filing was submitted to the General Court on 3 December 2025 as part of Case T-503/25.

Should the General Court overturn the EC’s approval, it could have substantial implications for Broadcom’s $61bn investment.

A reversal would necessitate a reassessment of the merger under current market conditions, potentially leading to regulatory uncertainties for Broadcom’s stakeholders, said CISPE.

Additionally, licensing changes introduced post-merger could expose Broadcom to further litigation risks due to what CISPE describes as a flawed regulatory evaluation.

Separately, Broadcom reported its financial results for the fourth quarter ending on 2 November 2025. The company achieved revenue of $18bn for the quarter, marking a 28% increase from the previous year.

Its GAAP net income reached $8.52bn, reflecting a rise of 97% compared to the same quarter in the prior year.

Google has dropped an antitrust complaint that it filed in the European Union last year over Microsoft’s business practices.

The development comes a few days after the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, launched an antitrust probe into Microsoft. The investigation will scrutinise the company’s conduct in the public cloud market, which was also the focus of Google’s antitrust complaint.

Microsoft sells a version of Windows called Windows Server that is optimised for public cloud environments. Many enterprises use it to run Microsoft applications such as SQL Server. In 2019, the tech giant rolled out a major update to its terms of service for Windows Server installations that run on competing clouds.

Google’s antitrust complaint argued that the 2019 licensing change was anticompetitive. According to the company, the update made it more expensive to run Windows Server on Google Cloud than on Microsoft’s own Azure cloud platform. The search giant cited research that found the revised terms of service cost EU businesses more than €1 billion.

Google also flagged other issues to EU regulators. According to the search giant’s complaint, Microsoft limited customers’ access to Windows Server patches on competing clouds and created interoperability obstacles.

“Today, we are withdrawing it in light of the recent announcement that the EC will ​assess problematic practices affecting the cloud sector under a separate process,”‌ stated Giorgia Abeltino, the head of government affairs and public policy for Google Cloud Europe. “We continue to work with policymakers, customers, and regulators across the EU, the U.K., and elsewhere to advocate for choice and openness in the cloud ⁠market.”

The Microsoft probe that EU officials opened last week will seek to determine whether Azure qualifies as a core platform service under the bloc’s DMA law. The DMA, or Digital Markets Act, is a piece of antitrust legislation that went into effect in 2022. Products that are designated as a core platform service are subject to stricter regulatory requirements.

One DMA clause specifies that core platform services must provide a simple way for users to move their data to other platforms. If regulators apply that requirement to Azure, Microsoft may have to make technical changes to its data export tools. Many of the other requirements set forth in the DMA focus on consumer products such as mobile operating systems, which means they likely wouldn’t affect Azure.

The Microsoft probe is one of three investigations into the public cloud market that the EU announced last week. Officials will also seek to determine whether Amazon Web Services qualifies as a core platform service. Additionally, the European Commission will study whether the DMA should be modified to better address antitrust concerns in the cloud market.