German software powerhouse SAP SE must face key claims in an antitrust lawsuit filed by rival Celonis SE, after a U.S. federal judge ruled that allegations of monopolistic behavior in the enterprise software market were strong enough to proceed.
In a decision handed down on Monday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California rejected SAP’s motion to dismiss most of the lawsuit, allowing major portions of Celonis’s complaint—including its antitrust and unfair competition claims—to move forward. The court dismissed one portion of the case related to product tying but found that Celonis had provided sufficient evidence to plausibly argue that SAP engaged in exclusionary conduct to maintain market dominance.
Background of the Dispute
The case stems from growing tensions in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and process mining sectors—two closely related fields in the business software industry. ERP systems, like SAP’s flagship products, help large companies manage critical functions such as accounting, supply chains, and human resources. Process mining tools, pioneered by companies like Celonis, analyze business process data to identify inefficiencies and recommend optimizations.
Celonis, founded in Munich in 2011, has grown rapidly into one of the leading independent software companies in the process intelligence space. The company claims SAP, which dominates the ERP market globally, began using its control over enterprise data to limit competition in the process mining segment—a fast-growing field projected to be worth billions in the next few years.
In March 2025, Celonis filed its lawsuit against SAP in the Northern District of California. The complaint alleged that SAP leveraged its massive market power in ERP systems to restrict customers’ access to their own operational data—data that process mining tools like Celonis rely upon to deliver insights. According to Celonis, SAP implemented new policies and technical restrictions making it harder for customers to extract or use this data with third-party tools, effectively forcing them to use SAP’s own process analytics offerings instead.
Celonis further alleged that SAP threatened to withdraw support or impose penalties on customers who continued to use Celonis’s products, describing this behavior as “a deliberate campaign to shut out competition” and maintain monopoly control.
Judge’s Ruling
Judge Chhabria’s decision marks an early but significant win for Celonis. In his ruling, the judge concluded that Celonis’s claims of monopolization and unfair competition were adequately supported to warrant further proceedings. The court emphasized that restricting customers’ access to their own data in order to exclude a competitor could constitute anticompetitive behavior under U.S. antitrust laws.
However, the judge dismissed the company’s “tying” claim, which argued that SAP unlawfully linked its ERP software to its own process-mining tools, ruling that the claim lacked sufficient factual basis. Still, he allowed Celonis the opportunity to amend its complaint within 14 days to provide more detail if it chooses to pursue that theory again.
Responses from Both Companies
In a statement following the ruling, SAP noted that while it was pleased the court dismissed some of the claims, it disagreed with the characterization of its business practices and said it would “vigorously defend” its innovation-driven strategy.
Celonis, on the other hand, hailed the decision as an important step toward accountability in an industry increasingly dominated by a few large players. A spokesperson for Celonis said the company remains committed to “protecting fair competition and innovation,” emphasizing that “customers deserve the right to freely choose the best technology for their business needs.”
Wider Industry Implications
The dispute between SAP and Celonis highlights a broader issue that has drawn attention from regulators and competitors alike—the growing importance of data access and interoperability in enterprise software. As more organizations rely on complex digital ecosystems to run operations, control over customer data has become a powerful lever for maintaining market dominance.
Legal experts say the case could test how far antitrust law can reach into software ecosystems where interoperability and data-sharing restrictions are often framed as technical or security decisions rather than deliberate competitive barriers.
SAP has already faced scrutiny in Europe over its competitive practices, though this U.S. case is among the first to directly challenge the company on antitrust grounds in American courts.
Next Steps
With Judge Chhabria’s ruling, the lawsuit now moves into the discovery phase, where both sides will exchange documents and testimony to support their positions. Celonis is expected to seek internal communications and technical documentation to bolster its claims that SAP intentionally altered data-access policies to disadvantage competitors.
SAP may still attempt to narrow the case through summary judgment motions at a later stage. However, the judge’s refusal to dismiss the core antitrust claims ensures that the case will likely remain active for months, if not years, to come.
As enterprise software continues to evolve toward greater automation and AI-driven analytics, the outcome of this case could have lasting implications for how dominant firms handle customer data and for the competitive balance across the tech sector.
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