Lobby group CISPE is calling on regulators to investigate Broadcom over unfair new licensing terms.

Customers of VMware’s former VCSP partner program were invited to join Broadcom’s own Advantage partner program following the acquisition. However, small providers are not included in this new program, but were still able to participate through Broadcom’s white label program. However, this lifeline did not prove to be a solution for either primary or secondary providers. The new agreement caught the attention of CISPE. The lobby group is calling on regulators to quickly investigate Broadcom’s actions and is calling for Broadcom to be appointed as a gatekeeper under the European Digital Markets Act.

In the crosshairs

The new change Broadcom plans to make to its partners has caught the attention of lobbying group CISPE, a collective that represents cloud infrastructure providers in Europe. They called on regulators to investigate VMware under Broadcom’s software license agreement. According to the lobby group, the new regulation could harm end consumers or lead to the bankruptcy of some members.

Not for small service providers

VMware customers were inadvertently pushed into Broadcom’s new partner program, which isn’t intended for small vendors. The requirement is that organizations must have at least 3,500 cores, a number that most small VMware-based clouds in production do not have.

Broadcom offered a “white label” program where cloud providers participating in the partner program could resell their capabilities to others that don’t reach 3,500 cores. Secondary partners can resell primary partners’ clouds or purchase their licenses for existing hardware from primary partners.

Solution solves nothing

Sources tell The Register that the primary/secondary school schedule is not going well. Primary partners must support VMware software for secondary partners. This should not present any complications as the main partners are set up to accommodate multiple clients. However, primary partners rarely, if ever, provide software support at the same level as a vendor. This regulation would therefore not be feasible for secondary shareholders and could potentially lead to insolvencies.

But the main partners are also dissatisfied and feel under pressure. The new partner program requires unfair licensing conditions, which also have to be approved with far too short a notice period. “The new conditions include minimum obligations of double-digit million euros over a period of three years, sometimes increased by a factor of twelve (i.e. 1,200 percent),” wrote the lobby group CISPE.

The lobby group CISPE is now calling for an investigation into Broadcom’s licensing conditions. In addition, CISPE is also demanding that Broadcom be included as a gatekeeper in the DMA story, which will require them to comply with the strictest regulations the EU has to offer.