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The European Commission has launched an anti-trust probe on the German software giant Sap On Thursday, we cite concerns about the company’s practices in software support services.
According to the committee, the investigation will assess whether “it is possible that SAP may have distorted aftermarket competition due to maintenance and support services related to on-premises type software licensed by SAP, which is used to manage the operations of the enterprise.”
In a statement Thursday, SAP said it believes its policies and actions are in full compliance with EU competition rules.
“But we take the issues seriously and we are working closely with the EU Commission to resolve them,” the spokesman said. “We do not expect that our involvement with the European Commission will have a significant impact on our financial performance.”
SAP is one of Europe’s most valuable companies, with a market capitalization of around 28.2 billion euros ($331 billion). The company’s shares fell on Thursday, losing 2% in London by 12:45pm (7:45am ET).
The EU probe is associated with a portion of SAP software called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
ERP is widely used by large companies to manage their daily finance and accounting needs. SAP is a major player in the space, but that’s not the only one. The company is competing with ” Microsoft and Oraclewe offer our own ERP products.
Specifically, the European Commission said it is working on the so-called “ontrem” version of SAP ERP. ONPREM refers to software hosted on a company’s own server, as opposed to clouds that can be accessed remotely through SAP data centers.
Much of SAP’s business still comes from on-prem IT services. However, the company has been trying to shift more focus to the cloud for years. Amazondominates the market for public cloud services.
The latest EU antitrust probes are notable because they do not involve any major technology.
Much of Bullock’s research on competitive policy focuses on the market power of the US technology giant. This led to criticism from both the US tech sector and politicians who say American tech companies are being unfairly targeted. On Wednesday, Apple urged the elimination of the Digital Markets Act, the EU’s groundbreaking digital competition law, to “reduce a worse experience for Apple users in the EU.”
