Celonis and SAP Face Scrutiny Over SAP Data Access in German Antitrust Inquiry
German competition authority probes whether SAP limits access to system data, affecting Celonis and other software rivals seeking customers’ operational data.
Celonis, a Munich-based vendor of process-mining software, is at the center of a German competition inquiry into SAP data access after complaints that SAP may be making it difficult for rivals to use data stored in customer systems. The investigation examines whether technical or commercial restrictions inside SAP environments impede third-party solutions from analyzing and optimizing business processes. Companies that deploy SAP systems frequently generate large volumes of operational data that competing analytics and process tools, including Celonis, need to function effectively.
Background on Celonis and Process Mining
Celonis builds software that reconstructs and analyzes business processes by reading event and transaction data from enterprise systems. Its tools aim to identify bottlenecks, compliance gaps, and efficiency opportunities by combining records from ERP systems into actionable process maps.
Process-mining vendors typically need access to raw logs, tables and transactional metadata held in customers’ SAP landscapes to perform comprehensive analyses. The ability of third-party applications to read, export and interpret those records is therefore central to competition in the process analytics market.
Allegations of Restricted Access in SAP Systems
Critics allege that SAP has created practical barriers — whether through technical architecture, licensing terms, or data formats — that make it harder for competing vendors to access or extract system data. Those barriers, if present, could steer customers toward SAP’s own analytics products and services.
The focal point of scrutiny is whether technical limitations are deliberate or a byproduct of complex legacy designs, and whether commercial conditions attached to data access impose disproportionate costs or contractual hurdles for rivals. Both technical friction and pricing practices can influence a company’s ability to compete on functionality and price.
Scope of the German Competition Inquiry
The Bundeskartellamt has investigated whether SAP’s policies and system configurations amount to an abuse of market power by obstructing interoperability with third-party software. The probe looks at customer complaints, vendor submissions and technical documentation to assess the nature of access controls and terms of service.
Regulators will weigh evidence about the extent to which SAP’s design and commercial practices prevent customers from freely using their data with alternative analytics providers. The inquiry is part of a broader regulatory focus in Europe on data mobility, platform gatekeeping and fair competition in software ecosystems.
Customer Perspectives and Data Portability Demands
Many SAP customers want the flexibility to combine their enterprise data with best-of-breed tools from different vendors for reporting, compliance and operational improvement. Firms argue that restricted SAP data access limits innovation and forces them to choose between suboptimal analytics or expensive migration projects.
For customers running mission-critical SAP environments, concerns center on the cost, complexity and risk of extracting large data sets. IT teams and business units often seek clearer, standardized ways to export or stream data while maintaining security and compliance.
Competitive Consequences for Software Vendors
Restricted SAP data access can raise market entry costs for specialized analytics companies, potentially reducing the incentive to innovate in areas such as process mining, compliance automation and advanced operational analytics. Market concentration in enterprise software can also limit choice and raise long-term costs for end users.
At the same time, defenders of SAP’s practices point to product integration, support obligations and data governance needs as reasons for controlled access. The regulatory assessment must balance legitimate operational concerns against anti-competitive effects that harm rivals and customers.
Potential Regulatory Outcomes and Industry Implications
If the competition authority finds that SAP’s practices unlawfully impede data access, remedies could range from mandated interoperability measures to changes in commercial terms or technical interfaces. Such outcomes would echo wider European policy trends favoring data portability and competitive openness in digital markets.
Conversely, a finding that no unlawful conduct occurred would leave the status quo in place but could still prompt voluntary changes driven by customer pressure and market demand. Either way, the inquiry signals sustained regulatory attention on how platform incumbents manage access to customer-generated data.
The investigation into SAP data access highlights the tensions between platform control and open competition in enterprise IT. As regulators, customers and vendors engage over technical standards and commercial terms, the shape of enterprise data portability and interoperability will influence who can build the next generation of analytics and optimization tools.
