SAP disclosed on 30 July that Germany's Bundeskartellamt, the federal competition regulator in Bonn, had declined to open antitrust proceedings against it1. The disclosure came from the company rather than from the authority, and no decision text has been published.
German competition law lets the Bundeskartellamt open proceedings on its own initiative, so declining to do so ends the matter unless a complainant takes it elsewhere or new facts arrive. SAP, based in Walldorf, is Europe's largest enterprise software company and the largest European supplier in a market segment otherwise dominated by American vendors, which is why a competition question about it reaches this beat at all. The decision also lands a week after the Commission fined Google under the Digital Markets Act, leaving European regulators enforcing hard against an American platform and standing down against a German incumbent inside the same fortnight. Neither the company's statement nor the regulator sets out the conduct that was examined.
