Broadcom's EU Antitrust Document Request Rejected
Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) sought an interim measure from the Luxembourg‑based General Court in May 2026 to suspend a European Commission demand that it produce U.S. legal documents related to its 2023 acquisition of VMware Inc. The Commission, acting as the EU competition enforcer, required documents created outside the European Union.
Broadcom argued that the request violated U.S. attorney‑client privilege, which safeguards confidential communications between a company’s lawyers and its clients. However, EU law extends privilege only to communications with external counsel, not to those involving in‑house lawyers. The General Court rejected Broadcom’s arguments, with the presiding judge stating that “it is for the Commission to decide whether a particular item of information is necessary to enable it to bring to light an infringement of the EU competition rules.”
The decision means Broadcom must comply with the Commission’s request for the documents, and the antitrust investigation into the VMware acquisition can proceed with the supplied information. The article, published on 03‑08‑2026 at 09:56 pm, notes a minor stock movement of AVGO‑0.25% and indicates that the piece was generated with AI assistance and subsequently reviewed by an editor.