Brussels binds SAP commitments in software support antitrust case

The European Commission has made legally binding the commitments offered by SAP SE to end practices it feared restricted competition in the market for maintenance and support of on-premises business software. The decision in Case AT.40823 – SAP ERP aftermarket support services, adopted on 9 July 2026, is summarised in the Official Journal of the European Union, C series, of 3 November 2026 under reference C/2026/5731. No fine was imposed: the Commission found that the final commitments meet its concerns and that there are no longer grounds for action on its part.

The summary was published under document number C(2026)4685 final, notified in English only and carrying EEA relevance. It converts the case into a commitment decision under Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, in proceedings concerning Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement. The investigation opened on the Commission’s own initiative and covered the aftermarket for maintenance and support of on-premise Enterprise Resource Planning software across the European Economic Area.

• 25 September 2025: proceedings initiated and a Preliminary Assessment adopted.
• 31 October 2025: SAP replies to the Preliminary Assessment.
• 14 November 2025: SAP offers its initial commitments.
• 17 November 2025: the Commission publishes the Market Test Notice, receiving 43 third-party submissions.
• 6 July 2026: favourable opinion from the Advisory Committee on Restrictive Practices and Dominant Positions and final report of the Hearing Officer.
• 9 July 2026: the decision is adopted.

The four practices that worried Brussels

The Commission’s Preliminary Assessment identified four closely interlinked practices capable of infringing competition rules. First, the “All-or-Nothing” policy obliged customers taking SAP maintenance for one licence to buy it for all their on-premises ERP software at the same level. Second, that same policy prevented customers from dropping maintenance for “shelfware”, the unused licences they still pay for. Third, SAP extended the initial licence term, during which maintenance cannot be terminated. Fourth, a reinstatement policy applied to customers returning to support after a period away.

The regulator considered that the conduct could exclude rival maintenance providers and exploit SAP’s customers in the EEA. Third parties consulted in the market test focused most of their criticism on shelfware, on the excessive time needed for a landscape split to take effect, and on the 10 % cap applied to underutilised single-metric contracts.

What the final commitments change

After that consultation SAP strengthened its offer, and the final commitments now include:

• Splitting a landscape into separate commercial installations four times a year instead of once, with clearer requirements and no recalculation of the customer’s maintenance base.
• A doubling of the underutilisation cap under single-metric contracts, from 10 % to 20 % a year.
• Pure partial termination, without recalculation, in three new scenarios: products where customer-specific maintenance is the only phase available, failed implementation projects attributable to SAP, and customer insolvency or bankruptcy.
• Termination of up to 10 % of licences every two years for customers whose workforce shrank by at least 10 %, applicable retroactively from 1 January 2025.
• Reduction of licences after a business divestment, without limits on the number of licences.
• A single information point listing all partial termination options, and an internal clearing structure for disputed cases.
• Abolition of reinstatement fees, back maintenance fees cut to 50 % of what would have been paid and capped at six months, plus full waivers for products no longer supported.

Ten years, worldwide, with a monitoring trustee

SAP must update the relevant policies and contracts within three months of notification of the decision and inform customers and stakeholders within five business days of that date. It must train its staff on the commitments within six months and accept an independent monitoring trustee to verify compliance. The commitments apply equally to all customers worldwide for a period of 10 years.

The decision matters well beyond one vendor: it fixes, for a decade, how thousands of European companies running on-premises ERP systems may shop for maintenance, choose different support levels per installation, or leave unused licences unsupported. It also opens a durable legal channel for third-party maintainers that had been shut out by bundled contracts.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, C/2026/5731, 3 November 2026, C series, p. 1/4 (official reference: CELEX C/2026/5731).