SAP—SAP accepted binding EU Commission commitments to end anticompetitive on-premise software maintenance practices
The European Commission concluded a formal antitrust investigation (opened September 2025) into SAP's maintenance and support practices for its on-premise ERP software. The Commission had found SAP potentially engaged in four anticompetitive practices: preventing customers from cancelling maintenance tied to unused licenses, imposing retroactive charges on customers returning after a hiatus, extending license terms to block maintenance termination, and forcing customers to use SAP exclusively for on-premise maintenance. On July 9, 2026, the Commission accepted binding commitments from SAP without imposing a fine: SAP agreed to let customers split their software estate among multiple maintenance providers, waive reinstatement fees, cap back-maintenance charges, and allow license/maintenance termination in defined circumstances including workforce reductions over 10%.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antitrust & Competition | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.885 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
European Commission press release announcing binding commitments accepted from SAP
The European Commission announced it accepted legally binding commitments from SAP to address competition concerns about maintenance and support services for its on-premise software, resolving the case opened in September 2025 without a fine.