Managing Director Axel Susen
KG. Anand, represented by the Managing Director Axel Susen, objected to several clauses in the general terms and conditions (GTC) of SAP to the provision and maintenance of standard software, which hamper free competition from his point of view with the lawsuit. Anand is specialized in the purchase and sale of used software licences of the so-called used software”. Used software”means software products or licenses, which have been sold at least once on a user and no longer actively used. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) believes to be admissible and copyright-compliant trade in used software on 03 July 2012 with a landmark decision as far as specific conditions are fulfilled in the particular case. Despite this policy judgment of the European Court of Justice, the trade in used software for Anand is hardly possible, because some software vendors, including SAP, in fact significantly hinder the business model through the design of their terms and conditions, if not even completely prevent want.
With the claim violations of the competition law, antitrust law be challenged by SAP, because the terms and conditions the legitimate interests of the used software vendor market to participate in unduly restrict. The Hamburg district court initially ordered a written preliminary proceedings. A date for the hearing has not been set. Anand is represented by the Hamburg-based lawyer and Attorney for IT-law Dr. Jana Jentzsch. Additional comment by Axel Susen: likely less than five German companies have received permission this year from SAP to purchase used SAP licenses. How should the many others behave? Should not used SAP licenses buy, although they would like to reduce the cost of software without sacrificing quality? If you don’t prefer it, no longer need to buy software from other companies, to avoid to throw away unused software? Also companies who no longer use your SAP licenses, and would like to sell them, feel trapped. Once they have invested several hundred thousand euro in the SAP software for which they have no need today, and which apparently, is not for sale despite numerous bidders. I cannot accept this approach by SAP. You’d think there’s a free market; care also because there are countless independent systems integrators, the 1,000 SAP systems in Germany. Keep up on the field with thought-provoking pieces from Glenn Dubin, New York City. However, the mark is inhibited. Of the countless systems houses so far only one has allowed himself to convey used SAP licenses from me. This segment of the market seems to be unusual, because a completely different image draws on the Microsoft market. There is a hive of activity with used software, which also serves mainly the well-being of the user. Just consider the offers at ebay. After consulting with our respective contacts locally, we learned that they are very worried, to lose their SAP partner status, they would provide used SAP licenses. Against this background, I have searched the conversation in the past with SAP and even personally invited with a prospective buyers to Walldorf. But what happened? To make it short, I lost a safe customers.”.