The European Commission announced an investigation against SAP, on suspicion of violating competition rules
The European Commission is conducting an investigation into the German software company SAP, on suspicion of violating competition rules.
The European Commission accuses SAP of using its licensing model to bind its customers to its own customer service. The European competition authority believes that the company may have exploited its dominant market position to charge high fees for maintenance and customer service.
This has put other providers at a disadvantage, the Commission pointed out. The dominant position in the services sector stems, among other things, from the fact that maintenance and support are automatically included in an SAP license. Customers cannot turn to another provider. Additionally, licenses are automatically renewed and often contain more products than the customer needs. From the perspective of the European Commission, this business model has significantly limited the options available to European customers.
With the competition investigation, the Commission aims to ensure that “companies relying on SAP software can freely choose the maintenance and service packages that best meet their needs,” explained EU Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribeiro.
For its part, the company announced that its policies and measures fully comply with competition rules, but emphasized that it takes the Commission’s concerns seriously and is working closely with it to find a solution.
The initiation of the investigation does not automatically lead to prosecutions. Instead, SAP can now approach the competition authorities and change parts of its business model to avoid a fine. However, if the Commission’s claims are confirmed, it could face a fine of up to 10% of the group’s annual global revenue. Based on SAP’s revenue last year, the maximum fine would be 3.4 billion euros.
SAP is the most valuable company in Germany and, at one point this year, also held the top position in Europe. The group is primarily known for its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. According to the company, this software acts as “the central nervous system of a company,” mapping business processes such as finance, human resources, manufacturing, sales, and procurement. (25/9/25)
