EU ruling boosts SAP customers' hand on support costs

EU investigation forces SAP support concessions

SAP has agreed to overhaul parts of its support and maintenance model in Europe, handing enterprise customers fresh leverage over contract terms and migration timelines, according to Gartner.

The move follows a European Commission probe into possible anticompetitive behavior around SAP maintenance and support services. The investigation, launched in September last year, has now been closed after SAP promised to abolish reinstatement fees and cut back‑maintenance charges for returning customers, among other commitments.

Gartner argues these changes arrive at a critical moment for enterprises still running classic SAP ERP.

ECC deadlines vs migration pressure

Thousands of large organizations continue to rely on SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) for core operations. SAP’s mainstream support for ECC ends in December 2027, with extended maintenance available until December 2030 at a surcharge of two percentage points on maintenance fees.

At the same time, SAP is pushing customers toward S/4HANA and the cloud via its RISE with SAP program, launched in early 2021 with hyperscalers and services partners. Yet Gartner estimates that the majority of SAP’s installed base remains on‑premises, and predicts that by 2030 more than 10,000 SAP customers will still be running major parts of their business on ECC-based solutions.

Recommended reading

Hinge founder Justin McLeod readies Overtone AI matchmaker

Gartner warns against rushing that shift:

“Premature SAP modernization leads to excessive technical debt and spiraling costs. The EU ruling fundamentally endorses third-party software support not just as a cost-cutting measure, but as a vital strategic resource to reduce the risks of ECC or S/4HANA migration. Heads of enterprise applications must urgently leverage this newfound flexibility to buy preparation time and avoid being locked into inflexible cloud commitments before they are ready.”

What SAP agreed to change

In its October response to the Commission, SAP pledged to improve “the financial attractiveness for customers who wish to reinstate SAP maintenance and support services.”

The Commission has now confirmed that SAP will:

• Abolish reinstatement fees for customers returning to SAP support after a break
• Reduce back‑maintenance fees in those situations
• Clarify conditions that allow customers to choose different maintenance and support providers, and different levels of SAP support

Gartner says this dismantles a long‑standing bind:

“Previously, SAP customers faced an unavoidable dilemma: rush a highly complex migration to SAP S/4HANA or SAP private services before 2030, or stay on-premises with limited support and compliance guarantees via SAP’s Customer-Specific Maintenance.”

With the new commitments in place, Gartner notes:

“Because this new ruling legally prevents SAP from restricting customers who want to 'mix and match' M&S services from different suppliers, it shatters the historical barriers to utilizing third-party support services (TPSS), providing essential extra options to best manage risk.”

Gartner: rethink your SAP roadmap

In one of two research notes released last week, Gartner urges enterprises to revisit SAP ERP modernization plans and stop treating SAP’s own dates as the primary driver.

Instead, it says, decisions should hinge on technical debt, organizational readiness for operating model change, and the urgency of new ERP capabilities.

The second paper highlights the negotiation angle. Gartner argues that the new commitments let customers re-evaluate SAP support, trim costs, and push back harder in vendor talks:

“Increased competition gives ECC and S/4HANA on-premises customers greater negotiation power on support contracts and cloud deals. Customers should explicitly reference the ruling when seeking alternatives to standard maintenance increases.”

User groups see flexibility, not a mass exodus

SAP user groups welcome the extra options, but doubt it will trigger a rush to third‑party support.

Michael Bloch, licensing expert and board member of German-speaking user group DSAG, said:

“It will be interesting to see whether customers will take that choice actively: most of them who are using ECC and may be looking for third-party support will not come back to SAP. As S/4HANA will still be supported until 2040, I personally do not believe that customers will cancel their support contracts and come back afterwards to SAP while having support until 2040.”

Conor Riordan, chair of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group, said users had long pushed for more flexibility, transparency, and predictability.

“Ultimately, this should give customers a clearer framework for responding to changing business conditions while evolving their SAP estates at a pace that suits them. We do not expect a wholesale shift away from SAP maintenance. For most organisations, especially those with complex or business-critical SAP landscapes, extended maintenance remains the lower-risk bridge while they continue their transition planning.”

For now, the sharper tool on the table is bargaining power, not mass defection from SAP support.