SAP has closed a European Commission competition investigation into its on-premise maintenance and support policies through binding commitments that give customers more flexibility over support choices, unused licenses, and return-to-support fees.
The European Commission accepted binding commitments from SAP after investigating whether the company’s maintenance and support practices restricted competition in the aftermarket for support services tied to SAP on-premise ERP software. SAP “welcomed” the European Commission’s decision on July 9, saying the commitments provide greater clarity, choice, and safeguards for customers managing complex on-premise environments.
The decision relates only to SAP’s on-premise maintenance policies and does not apply to SAP cloud offerings. However, it lands at a sensitive moment for SAP customers still managing legacy ERP estates while evaluating S/4HANA, RISE with SAP, cloud migration timelines, and third-party support options.
Reuters reported that SAP avoided a potential EU antitrust fine through the agreement. The commitments will apply globally for 10 years and are intended to make it easier for customers to switch support providers or end contracts without facing the same cost barriers.
Analysis
What this means: Maintenance contracts can influence ERP modernization decisions. Customers still running on-premise ERP need more than a technical migration roadmap. They need commercial flexibility to decide which systems to support, retire, isolate, or move to third-party maintenance. For CIOs and sourcing leaders, support-policy review should sit alongside SAP S/4HANA planning, cloud business cases, and application rationalization.
Policy Changes Focus on Choice and Shelfware
In a separate July 9 post, SAP outlined the policy changes, saying the updated practices apply to all current and future SAP customers worldwide for SAP’s on-premise products.
SAP is expanding access to single-metric contracts, which offer another way to calculate license fees that serve as the basis for maintenance and support fees. The company said this can give customers a more predictable basis for calculating costs and help support adjustments as business conditions change.
The commitments also introduce more flexibility for unused licenses, often described as shelfware. SAP said customers will have additional options to terminate licenses in objectively justified cases, including severe workforce reductions, customer-specific maintenance situations, bankruptcy, divestiture, and implementation failure.
Analysis
What this means: Shelfware pressure will intensify as ERP estates get cleaned up. Unused licenses, redundant installations, and legacy support obligations can quietly inflate the cost of maintaining old environments while teams fund cloud migration programs. For SAP customers, finance leaders, and procurement teams, the next practical step is to map license usage, support coverage, and modernization intent before renegotiating maintenance strategy.
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Customer Flexibility Behind the Commitments
Other changes include a clearer framework for separating SAP system landscapes into commercial installations, allowing customers to apply different support choices to different parts of their environment. Customers will be able to choose varying SAP support levels, no SAP support, or support outside SAP for specific installations, giving organizations more room to align maintenance arrangements with operational priorities.
The July 9 post also highlighted simpler contract terms and easier return-to-support conditions. SAP said returning customers will not face administrative fees, and back-maintenance fees will be capped at the lower of six months or 50% of the fees for the period off support, with a defined set of outdated products excluded from back-maintenance fees entirely.
SAP said the commitments were developed through dialogue with the European Commission and customer representatives, including the German-speaking SAP user group DSAG. Jens Hungershausen, Chairman of DSAG’s Executive Board, described the move as “an important step in the right direction,” saying the added flexibility will help customers make better decisions about SAP system architecture while preserving choice over systems that still provide business value.
Why Return-to-Support Terms Matter
The changes reduce one of the commercial barriers that can limit customer flexibility in mature SAP landscapes. Customers evaluating third-party support, delayed migrations, or selective maintenance strategies often need confidence that leaving SAP support for part of their estate will not create disproportionate costs if business priorities later change.
That flexibility is especially relevant for organizations managing long-tail on-premise systems during S/4HANA planning. Some environments may still support valuable business processes even if they are no longer part of the customer’s future-state architecture, making support strategy a practical modernization decision rather than a simple renewal exercise.
SAP said it will reinforce consistent execution through updated guidance, training, and independent oversight. The company also said SAP account executives and customer-facing teams will be briefed on the changes, and that a clearing structure will be established for customers that dispute how the new rules are applied.
Analysis
What this means: Regulators are putting enterprise software lock-in under closer scrutiny. The SAP decision shows that customer choice, switching costs, contract transparency, and aftermarket support competition are becoming policy issues, not just procurement complaints. For ERP vendors and service providers, the broader trend points toward support models that need to be easier to explain, easier to audit, and easier for customers to exit without punitive friction.
