The Software Freedom Conservancy filed a lawsuit against VMWare in 2016, alleging that the "vmkernel" component in VMware ESXi is built using Linux kernel code. However, the component code itself is closed, which violates the requirements of the GPLv2 license.
At that time, the court did not rule on the merits. The case was closed due to lack of due diligence and uncertainty over property rights to the Linux kernel code.
Yesterday, the German Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the District Court of Hamburg in the case of violation of the GPL license by VMware and did not satisfy the appeal. VMware will remove the incompatible module.
Source: linux.org.ru