The European Commission (EC) has accepted legally binding commitments from SAP to address competition concerns over aftermarket maintenance and support services for SAP on‑premises enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
The decision follows a formal antitrust investigation opened in September 2025 into practices the EC said could restrict competition in the EEA market for maintenance and support (M&S) services for SAP on‑premises ERP.
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European Commission clean, just and competitive transition executive vice-president Teresa Ribera said: “SAP’s software is critical to businesses across Europe, and indeed globally.
“Today’s decision gives customers using SAP’s popular on-premises business management software more freedom to choose maintenance and support services without unfair restrictions that raised their costs and stifled competition.”
SAP’s commitments include changes to contract terms that affect how customers purchase, split, and terminate support arrangements. The measures will be applicable globally for ten years, and a monitoring trustee will oversee their implementation and report to the EC.
SAP will clarify the conditions under which customers can split an SAP landscape into separate parts. This is intended to allow customers to use different M&S providers, choose different SAP support levels, or use no support for each part.
The company also committed to allowing customers to terminate licences and related M&S fees in defined scenarios. These include products in a final M&S stage where SAP provides reduced services, failed implementation projects where SAP is responsible, and cases of customer insolvency or bankruptcy.
Further provisions cover licence reductions and transfers. Where a customer reduces its workforce by 10% or more over two years, it will be able to reduce 10% of licences and related M&S costs. In a divestiture, customers will be able to transfer licences to the buyer, transfer part and terminate the remainder, or terminate all licences if the buyer does not need SAP software.
SAP will also provide wider access to single‑metric contracts, which offer an alternative method for calculating licence fees and the M&S fees derived from them.
Another commitment concerns the initial licence term, during which customers cannot terminate support contracts. SAP will clarify its contractual provisions and will not restart a new initial term with each additional licence purchase.
SAP will eliminate reinstatement fees and cut back maintenance charges for customers who return to SAP support after a lapse. The company will also set up an internal escalation process that customers can use if they believe SAP is not applying these commitments correctly.
In its preliminary assessment, EC said SAP may have prevented customers from terminating M&S services for unused licences, potentially leading to payments for services customers did not need.
It also said SAP may have imposed reinstatement and back maintenance fees after gaps in support, in some cases matching the amount customers would have paid had they remained with SAP.
EC also raised concerns about what it described as systematic extensions of initial licence terms that prevented termination of M&S services.
A fourth issue focused on requirements that customers obtain M&S from SAP for all their SAP on‑premises ERP software and choose the same type of support under the same pricing conditions, which the commission said could limit customers’ ability to use different suppliers for different parts of their SAP estate.
