European cloud watchdog slams Broadcom over VMware licensing, warns on SAP

European cloud watchdog ECCO gave Broadcom a 'red' status for worsening VMware licensing practices since October 2025: closing the partner program, strict BYOL terms, and price increases up to 10 times. SAP received an 'amber' status due to API and agentic AI licensing restrictions.

• Broadcom closed VMware CSP partner program in January 2026
• License prices rose 10 times or more after VMware acquisition in 2023
• ECCO found automatic VMware blocking mechanism for non-reporting every 180 days
• SAP restricts data access for agentic AI and pushes its own cloud stack