European Commission launched an investigation into a German software company SAP for possible anti-competitive practices. The company is suspected of distorting competition in maintenance and support services, informed the Brussels office on Thursday. This information was met with a fall in stock prices at noon.
SAP shares were initially down by up to 2.6%. Recently, with a 1.5% discount to €224.50, they inactive ranked among the weakest companies in the DAX index. This means a failure of about 5% since the beginning of the year.
Specifically, the investigation concerns whether competing companies, which besides offer maintenance of German group software, are not discriminated against in an anti-competitive manner.
"SAP considers its policies and actions to be full in line with competition rules", said the company. "However, we deal seriously with the Commission's concerns and work closely with it to find a solution. We do not anticipate a crucial impact on our financial performance."
It is besides said that SAP uses customers
In its preliminary assessment, the Commission sets out its competition concerns. As established, German company requires their customersto make its software only serviced by SAP . In addition, customers must choose the same kind of maintenance and method support services under the same price conditions. This could prevent customers from combining maintenance and method support services between different suppliers at different prices and at different levels of support, even though this would be more cost-effective for them.
SAP can be punished with penalties
The Commission is presently initiating a detailed investigation, which it has informed. In order to address the Commission's concerns, SAP may make binding commitments to make adjustments. Otherwise, the German company can be punished.
SAP is the most valuable company in Germany, and this year even ranked first in Europe. The company is known primarily for enterprise resource planning software (ERP). According to the company, this software acts as a “central tense strategy of the company”, mapping business processes specified as finance, human resources, production, sales and supplies. Many people working in German offices are likely to come into contact with SAP products in any way, even if it is just a request for leave or a bill of travel expenses.
