SAP is implementing sweeping changes worldwide to the terms and conditions for maintenance and support of its on-premises software. The software vendor is taking this action following a competition investigation by the European Commission. For organizations that use SAP, this means they will have greater freedom to have maintenance performed by third parties and will be able to structure their license and support contracts more flexibly.
The European Commission launched the investigation in September 2025. Brussels suspected that SAP was unnecessarily hindering customers from switching to independent providers of maintenance and support for on-premises software. Thanks to binding commitments from SAP, the case has now been closed, averting a potential European fine.
According to the European Commission, this will give customers greater freedom of choice and remove contractual restrictions that made switching to alternative maintenance providers difficult and could have increased costs.
SAP is implementing the new terms globally and will maintain them for the next ten years. The agreements include, among other things, an alternative method for calculating license fees, on which maintenance and support costs are also based. In addition, SAP is eliminating the fees for reactivating a previously terminated maintenance contract and reducing the back-payable maintenance costs for returning customers.
According to SAP, the changes are intended to provide customers managing complex on-premises environments with greater clarity, flexibility, and certainty.
More strategic leeway for CIOs
The impact extends beyond the legal resolution of the European investigation. According to the German-language SAP user association DSAG, organizations that continue to run their ERP landscape on-premises will have significantly more leeway to shape their own support strategy. According to ComputerWoche, they can have different parts of their SAP environment supported by different vendors and more easily discontinue maintenance for software that is no longer in use.
According to the DSAG, this primarily changes the strategic position of CIOs. Organizations are less likely to have to choose between fully embracing SAP’s cloud strategy or sticking with their existing environment. They can keep their current ERP systems in use longer, while at the same time adding targeted cloud functionality or engaging an alternative maintenance partner for parts of their environment.
The user association does not expect companies to abandon SAP en masse as a result. However, the choices will become more complex. CIOs will have to determine, on a per-application and per-business-process basis, where the innovations of SAP’s cloud platform offer sufficient added value and where it is more attractive to retain existing systems for longer. The new agreements thus increase customers’ room for negotiation but make a clear long-term vision for the ERP environment more important than ever.