In a decision that marks the most significant shift in enterprise software dynamics in decades, the European Commission has formally accepted a suite of legally binding commitments from SAP, disrupting the vendor’s long-standing domination of software maintenance.
The agreement, which will remain in force globallyfor the next ten years, concludes a high-stakes antitrust probe launched by the European Commission in September 2025. Regulators were concerned that SAP’s rigid support structures, like including forced bundling of services and punitive re-entry fees, were “potentially distortive” and designed to lock customers into expensive, unwanted contracts.
Responding to the news, Mark Smith, founder and CEO of Support Revolution, said:
“The recent announcement by the European Commission is a monumental victory for SAP customers worldwide. For too long, organizations have been held in expensive support shackles, forced into rigid, all-or-nothing contracts that stifled innovation and inflated costs. The Commission’s decision to make SAP’s concessions legally binding for the next ten years represents a fundamental shift in power back to the customer.
“At Support Revolution, we have always championed the right of organizations to control their own IT roadmaps. This ruling validates that mission by removing the anti-competitive barriers that SAP previously used to maintain its support monopoly.”
What has been agreed?
To address the Commission’s competition concerns and avoid potential fines of up to 10% of its annual global turnover, SAP has legally committed to the following measures:
- Clarify the conditions for splitting customers’ SAP landscape into separate parts, allowing customers to choose different maintenance and support (M&S) service providers, different levels of support from SAP, or none at all for each part;
- Allow customers to terminate their licences and the respective M&S fees in the following specific scenarios:
- For products in the final M&S stage in which SAP provides reduced services;
- For failed implementation projects where the responsibility for the failure is on SAP;
- In case of customers’ insolvency or bankruptcy;
- In case of workforce reduction of 10% or more over a period of two years customers will have the possibility to reduce 10% of their licences and related M&S costs;
- In case of divestiture of a business, customers will be able to transfer the licences to the buyer; transfer part of the licences to the buyer and terminate the remainder, or terminate all the licences if the buyer has no need for SAP software;
- Give wider access to single-metric contracts, which provide an alternative way for calculating the license fees based on which M&S fees are calculated in turn;
- Clarify its contractual provisions regarding the initial license term, during which customers cannot terminate their support contracts, and refrain from restarting a new term for every additional license purchase;
- Abolish reinstatement fees and reduce back maintenance fees charged to customers who return to SAP’s support after a period of absence; and
- Create an internal clearing structure customers can turn to when they consider that SAP is not applying the commitments correctly.
Relief for the entire portfolio
While users of legacy SAP ECC 6 systems gain significant flexibility ahead of next year’s vendor-imposed 2027 support deadline, the implications of this ruling are universal. SAP has confirmed that these updated policies apply to all current and future on-premises products worldwide.
For the broader range of SAP customers, the change provides a toolbox of options to manage their software estates. Whether they are running stable SAP ECC Business Suite 7 environment or have already made the jump to S/4HANA on-premises, a CIO no longer needs to treat their entire software portfolio as a uniform block; instead, they can now make differentiated, business-led decisions for each component of their landscape, enabling more flexible usage of third-party support providers such as Support Revolution.
The power of landscape splitting
The crown jewel of these concessions is the right to split the SAP landscape into separate parts. Previously, SAP required customers to maintain the same support level and provider for all instances of a specific software type.
Under the new binding terms, customers gain the strategic freedom to:
- Mix and match providers: Choose different maintenance providers or different levels of SAP support for different sub-areas of their landscape.
- Targeted termination: Entirely stop support for specific “landscape slices” that no longer require official updates, while maintaining support for mission-critical core systems.
- Legacy preservation: Keep highly-customised core systems running on-premises indefinitely with third-party support, even as they selectively add cloud components for modern innovation.
Ending the financial penalties of choice
To ensure this freedom isn’t purely theoretical, the Commission has also forced SAP to lower the financial barriers to exit and entry. For years, the fear of reinstatement fees and back-maintenance charges (which could equal the full cost of missed payments!) acted as a significant deterrent for CIOs considering alternative support models.
SAP has now abolished reinstatement fees and significantly reduced back-maintenance costs for those who choose to return to official support after a hiatus. Furthermore, the ruling creates a simplified path to terminate shelfware (unused licences) in instances of workforce reduction, divestiture, or project failure, providing immediate balance-sheet relief.
A new strategic benchmark
User groups, including the DSAG and UKISUG, have hailed the decision as a “milestone” that returns choice to the customer. By decoupling the purchase of new licenses from the automatic extension of existing support terms, the ruling ensures that growth no longer means a lack of flexibility.
Why third-party support is the new strategic pillar
This ruling further legitimises the third-party support market, transforming it from what some would consider a niche alternative, into a core strategic option for any enterprise. By removing the switching risk, the EU has empowered organizations to leverage the benefits of third-party maintenance without fear:
- Unmatched cost savings: Eliminating shelfware and moving to a third-party support provider often cuts annual maintenance budgets by a minimum of 50%.
- Control over innovation: Organizations can modernize at their own pace, moving to the cloud when there is a clear business case, rather than following a vendor-imposed timeline.
- Specialised support for customised systems: Third-party providers such as Support Revolution often offer superior support for highly customised systems that SAP no longer prioritises.
Further reading
- SAP concedes to EU, freeing CIOs from expensive support shackles | CIO
- SAP to make it easier for customers to switch, averts EU fine | Reuters
- SAP escapes EU fine by updating on premises customer maintenance and service contract conditions | Diginomica
- SAP makes it easier for customers to shop for legacy product support, ending EU antitrust probe | The Register