Following a European Commission investigation, SAP has globally updated its maintenance and support policies to introduce more flexibility for customers.
Einar Brown Berg, Nortura, represents the SBN Merkantil Forum and is part of the Global License team in SUGEN, along with Roy Halvorsen Orkla. Einar hereby informs the SBN members about the changes. Find a summary on top and the full text sent by the SUGEN Chairman Gianmaria Perancin, who represents the French User Group USF.
Financial Updates
- Reinstatement fees are completely abolished.
- Back-maintenance charges are capped at the lower of six months or 50% of the unsupported period, and waived entirely for end-of-life products.
- Single-metric contracts will now include downward adjustments, allowing maintenance fees to decrease if the underlying metric (like customer revenue) decreases.
Licensing and Terminations
- Shelfware: Partial termination of unused licenses without rediscounting is now permitted under specific conditions:
- Workforce reduction of more than 10% over two years (allows up to a 10% license reduction).
- Products reaching end-of-life or customer-specific maintenance.
- Divestitures or bankruptcy/insolvency.
Support Structure Flexibility
- Landscape Splits: While tightly integrated systems must remain under a single support model, customers can now separate loosely integrated solutions (e.g., SAP ERP and BusinessObjects) into distinct commercial installations. This allows different support models, including third-party providers, for separate landscapes.
- Initial Support Term: The mandatory one-year minimum support term will now only apply once per customer lifetime and will not reset with subsequent purchases.
Deadlines and Implementation
- Initiation: Customers must route requests through their SAP sales representative to be tracked in a central SAP ticketing system.
- Deadlines: Full maintenance termination still requires notice by September 30 to take effect on January 1. Landscape splits, however, operate on a different timeline: SAP has up to six months to assess the split, with resulting support terminations taking effect on the first day of the following quarter.
Dear all,
Last Monday, we had a SUGEN call about the modifications in SAP support policies after the EU case on SAP support.
Meeting Recap: SAP Maintenance and Support Commitments
1. Purpose of the meeting
Uwe Grigoleit, responsible for SAP’s Customer Evolution Program and the SAP Service and Support portfolio, presented the commitments made by SAP following the European Commission’s investigation into SAP’s maintenance and support policies.
According to the presentation:
- The European Commission formally opened its investigation in September 2025.
- SAP concluded discussions with the Commission on 10 July, although the year was not explicitly stated in the transcript.
- The outcome consists of a set of commitments intended to address the Commission’s competition concerns.
SAP does not agree with the Commission’s underlying position that there must necessarily be an open third-party market for enterprise software maintenance and support. SAP also disputes the assertion that it holds a dominant position in the ERP market. Nevertheless, SAP has accepted the Commission’s position and agreed to modify several policies.
2. European Commission’s main concerns
The Commission challenged four main aspects of SAP’s contractual and support policies:
- Back-maintenance charges when customers return to SAP support after a period without maintenance.
- Reinstatement fees charged when customers return to SAP support.
- The “all-or-nothing” principle requiring an entire commercial installation to use one support model.
- Restrictions on the partial termination of unused licences, commonly referred to as shelfware.
The Commission considered that these policies could make it more difficult for customers to leave SAP support or use third-party maintenance providers.
3. SAP’s commitments
3.1 Back maintenance
When a customer returns to SAP support after a period without maintenance, the back-maintenance charge will be limited to the lower of:
- six months of maintenance fees; or
- 50% of the period during which the customer was without SAP support.
For example:
- If the customer was without support for eight months, the charge would be limited to four months.
- If the customer was without support for more than twelve months, the charge would be capped at six months.
SAP will also waive back-maintenance charges for products that were no longer under maintenance during the period when the customer was outside SAP support.
SAP’s rationale is that returning customers benefit from corrections, improvements and updates delivered during their period outside maintenance. However, SAP accepted that the associated retrospective charge should be limited.
3.2 Reinstatement fee
SAP will completely remove the contractual reinstatement fee.
This is separate from back maintenance. Back maintenance may still be charged, subject to the new limitations described above.
3.3 “All-or-nothing” support principle
SAP will retain the principle that one commercial installation must normally operate under a single maintenance and support model.
SAP argues that this is necessary to guarantee consistency across:
- data;
- business processes;
- integrated applications;
- the overall system landscape.
For example, SAP does not consider it appropriate for the finance component of an integrated ERP system to be supported by SAP while materials management is supported by another provider.
However, SAP is introducing a landscape split policy.
Under this policy, customers may create separate commercial installations for solutions that are not tightly integrated. Each resulting installation may then use a different support model.
The example given was a customer running both an SAP ERP system and SAP BusinessObjects products such as Crystal Reports. BusinessObjects licences and systems could potentially be moved into a separate landscape, allowing the customer to choose a different support arrangement for that landscape.
3.4 Shelfware and partial licence termination
SAP did not accept a general, unconditional right for customers to terminate unused licences. SAP’s position is that customers made a deliberate business decision when purchasing those licences.
However, SAP agreed to permit partial termination without rediscounting in several objectively defined circumstances.
Workforce reduction
Every two years, a customer that has reduced its workforce by more than 10% over the preceding two years may reduce its user licences by up to 10%.
End-of-life products
Customers may terminate licences and the corresponding maintenance fees when all products and product versions that can be used under those licences are:
- at end of life; or
- under customer-specific maintenance.
This termination may take place without rediscounting the remaining licences.
Divestitures
When a business entity is divested, licences used by that entity may be terminated if they cannot be transferred to the divested company.
This may apply when the transfer is prevented by operational difficulties, customer-side constraints, SAP-side constraints or legal restrictions.
Bankruptcy or insolvency
If part of a customer’s organisation enters bankruptcy or insolvency, licences associated with that entity may be terminated.
3.5 Initial support term
A customer entering SAP maintenance and support for the first time must remain under the selected support model for at least one full calendar year.
SAP clarified that this initial term can only be triggered once in the customer’s lifetime. It must not restart following subsequent purchases.
SAP acknowledged that the initial term may previously have been applied again in certain cases and stated that this practice will stop.
3.6 Single-metric contracts
SAP will introduce downward adjustment mechanisms into new single-metric contracts.
For example, if maintenance fees are linked to customer revenue:
- the fees may increase when revenue increases;
- the fees may also decrease when revenue decreases.
The adjustment may occur once a year, according to defined percentages and subject to an upper cap.
Previously, many such contracts provided for upward adjustments but not equivalent downward adjustments.
4. Operational implementation
Customers wishing to use these commitments should first contact their SAP sales representative.
SAP sales representatives are being trained on the commitments through mandatory training. When a concrete customer case arises, the sales representative will forward it to a central SAP team.
The request will then:
- be recorded in a central ticketing system;
- be assessed by the relevant SAP specialists;
- remain traceable throughout the process;
- be available as evidence for the external monitoring trustee required by the European Commission.
The purpose of this centralised process is to demonstrate that SAP is handling customers’ requests consistently and appropriately.
5. Global applicability
Although the commitments follow an investigation by the European Commission, SAP decided to apply the new policies globally.
SAP explained that:
- many customers operate across several countries;
- customers may have contracts located in countries for historical reasons;
- a regional application limited to the European Economic Area would be difficult to manage in a global business environment.
The commitments therefore apply outside the European Union as well.
6. Impact on third-party support providers
Participants asked about third-party support providers such as Spinnaker and Rimini Street.
SAP acknowledged that the commitments may make it easier for customers to:
- partially terminate SAP support;
- completely terminate SAP support;
- move all or part of their support to a third-party provider.
SAP described this as a natural consequence of the Commission’s objective of creating an open third-party maintenance and support market.
SAP and the SAP user groups will therefore need to accept that third-party providers may gain additional opportunities to approach SAP customers.
7. Distribution of the presentation
SAP confirmed that the presentation slides may be shared with user-group members.
The slides contain no information beyond what is already available on SAP’s website. SAP indicated that the website provides even more detailed information.
An additional slide explaining terminology, including the definition of a “commercial installation”, will also be included.
8. Clarification on the 30 September deadline
Gianmaria Perancin asked whether the usual 30 September deadline would continue to apply.
SAP confirmed that the deadline remains in place for a full termination of maintenance, effective from 1 January of the following year.
However, some of the new commitments may follow a different timetable.
For example, in the case of a landscape split:
- The customer submits the landscape split request to SAP.
- SAP may take up to six months to assess a complex request and propose how the split can be implemented.
- Once the split has been defined, any resulting support termination for one or more separated landscapes may take effect on the first day of the next quarter.
This means that the 30 September deadline continues to apply to a conventional full-maintenance termination, but landscape splits and related partial terminations may be implemented through a quarterly process.
9. Key takeaways
- SAP’s reinstatement fee will be abolished.
- Back maintenance will be capped at six months or 50% of the unsupported period, whichever is lower.
- Customers will have more options to separate loosely integrated solutions into distinct commercial installations.
- Partial termination of unused licences will be possible in defined circumstances, including workforce reductions, product end of life, divestitures and insolvency.
- The initial one-year support term may only be applied once.
- New single-metric contracts may allow maintenance fees to decrease when the underlying metric decreases.
- The new policies will apply globally.
- Customers must initiate requests through their SAP sales representative.
- Full maintenance termination remains subject to the 30 September deadline for effect on 1 January.
- Landscape splits may be assessed over a period of up to six months, with resulting support changes implemented from the beginning of the next quarter.
Assessment of the discussion
The presentation shows that SAP is preserving the central principles of its support model while introducing targeted flexibility in response to the European Commission’s concerns. The changes do not establish an unrestricted right to reduce licences or divide support within a tightly integrated ERP system. They do, however, create clearer and more favourable options for customers facing specific business changes or considering third-party support.
Thanks and best regards
Mr. Gianmaria Perancin
SUGEN Chairman & Core Leadership Team Member
USF Président / Chairman
M : +33627177975