Broadcom has filed a lawsuit in the Luxembourg-based General Court challenging requests from EU antitrust regulators for documents that contain legal advice provided by its U.S. lawyers in connection with an antitrust investigation tied to VMware, the company it acquired in 2023.
The filing, which the company describes as a procedural measure, seeks to protect what Broadcom characterizes as its rights under legal professional privilege rules that apply in jurisdictions outside the European Union, including the United States. Broadcom said the action is being taken on principle to preserve that privilege.
At the same time, Broadcom has indicated it is otherwise cooperating with the European Commission's requests for information in the probe, according to a Reuters report. The company framed its court filing as limited in scope - focused on preserving access to legal protections rather than obstructing the wider document exchange with EU authorities.
Attorney-client privilege safeguards confidential exchanges between lawyers and their clients when those communications are made for the purpose of requesting or delivering legal advice. The application and scope of that privilege differ across legal systems. Within the EU, the privilege generally extends to communications with external counsel but does not typically cover communications with in-house lawyers.
The European Commission, which enforces competition law across the bloc, said it stands ready to defend all of its decisions in court.
Separately, the cloud infrastructure trade group CISPE lodged an EU antitrust complaint against Broadcom in March. CISPE has asked regulators to temporarily bar Broadcom from terminating its VMware Cloud Service Provider programme in Europe. In its complaint, CISPE argued that Broadcom should not insist on full disclosure from its members impacted by Broadcom's practices while at the same time keeping its own internal communications and pertinent evidence opaque in the ongoing investigation.
The dispute centers on the intersection of cross-border privilege rules and the EU's procedural approach to competition investigations. Broadcom's court action places that legal question before the General Court in Luxembourg while the European Commission maintains its readiness to uphold its investigative decisions.