The European Commission’s competition investigation into SAP’s maintenance and support practices for on-premise ERP software concluded with a significant decision in July 2026. The Commission made SAP’s proposed commitments legally binding. The new rules will apply for 10 years to both existing and future SAP customers worldwide.
The significance of the decision goes beyond competition law. For SAP customers, the practical impact lies in greater flexibility: certain systems may be separated into different maintenance and support models, returning to SAP support may become easier, and unused licenses may be terminated in specific circumstances.
This makes the decision particularly relevant for SAP managers, CIOs and IT leaders, senior Basis professionals, enterprise architects, and teams responsible for SAP licensing and contract management.
1. What Did the European Commission Decide Regarding SAP?
Following its investigation into SAP’s aftermarket maintenance and support practices for on-premise ERP software, the European Commission accepted SAP’s proposed commitments through a legally binding commitment decision dated July 9, 2026. The decision concluded case AT.40823, which was examined under EU competition rules on the abuse of a dominant position.
The Commission had opened the investigation on September 25, 2025 to assess whether certain SAP practices in the on-premise ERP maintenance and support market could restrict competition and potentially constitute an abuse of dominance.
There is an important legal distinction here: the Commission did not issue a final finding that SAP had infringed EU competition law. Instead, SAP’s commitments were made legally binding in order to address the competition concerns identified by the Commission.
SAP states that the new maintenance and support practices apply from July 10, 2026 to existing and future customers worldwide across its on-premise SAP products. Implementation of the commitments will be monitored through an independent oversight mechanism for 10 years.
The decision does not apply to SAP’s cloud offerings. SAP S/4HANA Cloud, RISE with SAP, and other SAP cloud solutions are outside the scope of these commitments.
2. What Was at the Center of the Dispute?
One of the key issues was the extent to which SAP maintenance and support could be applied to a customer’s system landscape on an “all-or-nothing” basis.
Large SAP customers rarely operate a uniform system landscape. A core production system may sit alongside legacy applications, country-specific solutions, systems scheduled for retirement, or products that now deliver only limited business value.
In such environments, a customer may still see clear value in SAP support for some systems while preferring a different support model for others.
The new framework introduces greater flexibility. If the relevant conditions are met, SAP customers may be able to divide their system landscape into multiple Commercial Installations and consider a different SAP support model, an alternative maintenance provider, or no support at all for each installation.
This makes it possible to assess maintenance strategy at the level of individual system groups rather than treating the entire SAP landscape as a single support decision.
3. What Does the Commercial Installation Split Mean for Customers?
One of the most important aspects of the decision for SAP customers is the option to split a system landscape.
Under SAP’s revised approach, an existing landscape may be divided into two or more Commercial Installations if the required conditions are met. Each new installation must form a coherent environment capable of supporting independent business functions, with licenses and technical systems mapped consistently.
Separation is more straightforward where systems are technically independent. In highly integrated environments, however, architectural assessment becomes much more important.
Another critical point is that splitting the system landscape does not, by itself, trigger a requirement to purchase new licenses or reprice existing ones. Additional licenses may still be required if actual usage within the separated Commercial Installation is not covered by the licenses already assigned to it.
In practice, this means the decision cannot be implemented by procurement or licensing teams alone. Technical teams that understand system topology, integration dependencies, and actual usage patterns need to be involved as well.
Another important outcome is that a landscape split—or the purchase of additional licenses—does not restart the Initial Term of the existing contract. For long-standing SAP customers restructuring complex system environments, this provides an important safeguard against an unintended extension of contractual commitment periods.
4. How Are the Rules for Leaving and Returning to SAP Support Changing?
Another important effect of the new framework is that the conditions for returning to SAP maintenance and support are becoming more predictable.
SAP is removing the Reinstatement Fee that could previously apply when customers returned to SAP support.
The Back-Maintenance Payment will instead be capped at the lower of:
- 50% of the maintenance fees that would have been due during the period outside SAP support, or
- six months of SAP maintenance and support fees.
For certain older SAP products, back-maintenance charges are removed altogether.
This is particularly relevant for customers evaluating third-party support options. Leaving SAP support may no longer feel as irreversible simply because of uncertainty around the cost of returning later.
That does not mean leaving SAP support is now risk-free. Security patches, regulatory changes, product updates, and future transformation plans still need to be assessed on a system-by-system basis.
The added flexibility may make third-party maintenance and support providers a more realistic option for selected on-premise systems. Even so, the suitability of any alternative support model should still be evaluated against security requirements, regulatory obligations, upgrade plans, and the longer-term SAP transformation roadmap.
Further Reading
You can check out our analysis, [7 Strategic Developments Shaping the SAP Ecosystem in 2026], to align your SAP investment strategies with current trends and discover key digital transformation priorities.
5. What Is Changing for Unused Licenses and Divestiture Scenarios?
The new policy does not mean that unused licenses can simply be terminated at any time. SAP has defined specific and objective conditions under which termination may be possible.
These include failed implementations attributable to SAP, insolvency, products that have entered customer-specific maintenance only, and material workforce reductions under defined conditions. This is not a general license return mechanism; it applies only where SAP’s specified criteria are met.
The right to terminate licenses based on workforce reductions is also limited. SAP’s commitments apply defined thresholds and timing conditions, meaning that a reduction in headcount does not automatically allow a customer to terminate any amount of licenses it chooses.
There is also greater flexibility in divestiture scenarios, such as the sale or separation of a business unit. SAP customers and acquiring entities may have more options for allocating existing user licenses. Certain licenses may be transferred to the buyer, while some licenses that are not transferred may be eligible for termination together with their associated maintenance and support. SAP states that these transactions will not trigger a re-discounting of existing licenses or additional transfer fees.
For large corporate groups, companies going through mergers and acquisitions, and organizations undergoing significant restructuring, these changes may have a direct financial impact.
6. What Does the Decision Mean for Basis and SAP Architecture Teams?
At first glance, the decision may appear to be mainly about licensing and contract management. In practice, however, technical architecture becomes central once a customer considers splitting its system landscape into separate Commercial Installations.
Can one system really operate independently from another? Which integrations are in place? How are users, licenses, interfaces, and data flows distributed? Can the separated environment function as a coherent system landscape on its own?
SAP explicitly states that technical integration is an important factor in a landscape split and that each new Commercial Installation must form a coherent environment capable of supporting independent business functions.
This means that the system-topology knowledge held by Basis teams is becoming an input into maintenance and support strategy, not just day-to-day technical operations.
For complex SAP environments that have evolved over many years, the first step should be to establish an up-to-date system and integration map. Any separation analysis based only on licensing costs, without understanding the technical dependencies between systems, is likely to be incomplete.
7. What Should CIOs and SAP Leaders Do Now?
This decision does not mean that every SAP customer should immediately change its existing maintenance agreement.
For organizations with large and complex on-premise SAP landscapes, however, it creates a strong opportunity to reassess maintenance and support strategy.
A useful first step is to review four inventories together:
- SAP license inventory,
- system and integration landscape,
- annual maintenance and support costs,
- three-to-five-year S/4HANA and cloud transformation roadmap.
For customers approaching the 2027 and 2030 maintenance milestones, the added flexibility may also make it possible to assess support models for legacy systems separately from the S/4HANA transformation budget. Systems scheduled for retirement may not need to follow the same support strategy as business-critical systems expected to remain in operation for many years.
Contract structure should also be part of this assessment. SAP’s commitments introduce clearer rules around Single Metric Contracts, which are designed to manage the maintenance base using a single agreed usage metric and may, under certain conditions, make maintenance costs more predictable.
For customers with large and complex licensing structures, this is commercially significant enough that it should not be evaluated independently of the underlying system architecture.
Within this framework, each system or system group should be assessed against a simple question:
What is the business importance, technical independence, and remaining lifecycle of this system?
A business-critical system under active development may not require the same support strategy as a legacy system scheduled for retirement within two years.
This is where the real value of the new framework becomes clear: it allows technical architecture, business value, and commercial conditions to be assessed together in a more systematic and granular way.
Strategic Assessment: What Does This New Framework Mean for SAP Customers?
The European Commission decision is not a message telling SAP customers to leave SAP support. Nor does it reduce the importance of on-premise SAP systems.
Its main impact is that customers now have greater scope to design maintenance and support strategies at a more granular level.
For some organizations, the key question may no longer be:
“Should we remain under SAP maintenance?”
but rather:
“Which support model should apply to each system?”
For complex SAP landscapes, this reinforces the need to assess license management, Basis architecture, procurement, and transformation strategy together rather than as separate disciplines. Maintenance and support strategy is increasingly becoming a multidisciplinary decision area that combines technical system architecture, licensing agreements, and the S/4HANA transformation roadmap.
For SAP professionals, this may be the most important implication of the decision: system architecture is no longer only a technical concern. It can directly influence maintenance costs and support strategy.
Official Sources
SAP Maintenance & Support Commitments
This SAP page brings together the commitments effective from July 10, 2026, including Commercial Installation, Landscape Split, Initial Term, Single Metric Contract, license termination, and conditions for returning to SAP support.
SAP Maintenance Strategy
SAP’s official maintenance strategy explains that mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 ends at the end of 2027, with optional extended maintenance for eligible releases available through the end of 2030.
European Commission – AT.40823: SAP ERP Aftermarket Support Services
The official case file includes the opening of the investigation on September 25, 2025 and the commitment decision dated July 9, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The Commission adopted a decision making SAP’s proposed commitments legally binding. It did not issue a final finding that SAP had infringed EU competition law.
No. SAP states that the new maintenance and support commitments apply to existing and future customers worldwide.
Not automatically. The system landscape must meet SAP’s criteria for Commercial Installations and landscape splits. Technical integrations and the allocation of licenses are important parts of the assessment.
Yes. Under the new framework, the Reinstatement Fee has been removed and the Back-Maintenance Payment is subject to a defined cap.
No. According to SAP, the decision concerns maintenance and support practices for on-premise products. SAP cloud offerings, including RISE with SAP, are outside the scope of the commitments.
No. Under SAP’s commitments, a landscape split or the purchase of additional licenses does not restart the existing contract’s Initial Term.