The General Court backed the European Commission's demand for U.S. legal documents, even as Broadcom argued the material was protected by U.S. privilege rules.
Broadcom lost a bid to suspend a European Commission information request in the EU's VMware antitrust probe, deepening a cross-border dispute over legal privilege. The General Court dismissed Broadcom's challenge to a demand for documents tied to the company's U.S. legal advisers and said EU regulators may seek material they deem relevant to a competition investigation. The case stems from the Commission's scrutiny of changes Broadcom made to VMware's cloud service provider program after its 2023 acquisition of VMware, a deal that drew regulatory attention from the start. CISPE, the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe, filed a complaint on March 19, 2026, alleging the post-merger changes effectively excluded numerous European partners. Broadcom challenged the Commission's request on May 13, 2026. The court's refusal to grant interim measures means the investigation continues with access to the disputed documents, while the broader question of whether Broadcom's conduct harmed competition in European cloud services remains unresolved.