Brussels settled with SAP. It is now asking about Oracle.
The European Commission is reportedly gathering information from third parties about Oracle's enterprise software licensing practices, and assessing whether the evidence warrants a formal investigation.
Nothing formal has been opened.
The Commission's own words are the part to note. It "will continue to monitor possible further anticompetitive practices and abusive conduct in the enterprise software sector".
The products reported to be in scope are the ones with the most complicated meters. Oracle Database, with its processor, virtualisation and cloud licensing rules. Java, charged on total employee count. Then the on-premise portfolio: E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Siebel, Hyperion.
Pareekh Jain of Pareekh Consulting: "Oracle Database is probably the biggest area."
Manoj Chandra Jha of Nord-IQ Research sets the horizon: "This is likely to be a multi-year outcome, not a Q4 planning assumption."
The SAP precedent is what makes this concrete. SAP gave binding commitments restricting practices that had stopped customers switching support providers or terminating contracts.
Which line in your Oracle contract would you renegotiate first?
Sources
Our file on SAP
- 5 Nov
SAP says its network handles over $8 trillion of trade a year. Its AI agent post names no customer.
- 5 Nov
SAP says AI agents handle more than 90% of a wholesaler's 100,000 supplier confirmations unaided. Its Takeda figures are forecasts.
- 5 Nov
SAP says Somerset Council moved about 8,500 staff off its 17-year-old payroll system in 13 months, on budget. Nobody named the budget.
- 5 Nov
SAP offered 300 AI agents. Workday's product chief, a former SAP executive, called the autonomous enterprise idea "cold and soulless".
- 4 Nov
SAP won a Dutch military cloud deal of up to ten years. The ministry says it does not end its SAP dependence.
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