A European cloud watchdog has accused Broadcom of escalating unfair licensing practices and obstructing an investigation by the European Commission into its VMware licensing strategy.

The European Cloud Competition Observatory (ECCO) said Broadcom’s conduct had “deteriorated markedly” in the last year after it decided to shutter its Advantage Partner Program for VMware Cloud Service Providers (VCSPs) in Europe in favour of a more selective alternative scheme.

The group’s annual report said Broadcom had made a “serious and continuing attempt… to restructure the market in its favour” and threatened “the viability of European cloud infrastructure providers.”

ECCO was set up by the cloud consortium CISPE, which counts Microsoft and AWS as associate members, to “scrutinise software licensing practices in the European cloud sector” following a dispute with Microsoft in 2024.

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