SAP Is Under Investigation by DOJ for Price Fixing, Report Says

Key Takeaways

• Shares of German technology firm SAP listed in the U.S. fell Wednesday morning following reports the company is being investigated for potentially overcharging the U.S. government.
• U.S. regulators are looking into whether SAP and other companies may have conspired with Carahsoft, which sells IT hardware, software, and consulting services, to illegally fix prices.
• The Department of Justice is suing Carahsoft to obtain communications related to the sale of SAP software and hardware.

U.S.-listed shares of German software maker SAP (SAP) lost ground in pre-market trading Wednesday following a report it is among a group of companies being investigated for potentially overcharging the U.S. government.

U.S. regulators are looking into whether SAP and other companies may have conspired with Carahsoft, which sells IT hardware, software, and consulting services, to illegally fix prices. The overcharging could have impacted some $2 billion in products and services sold to various government departments over the last decade, Bloomberg reported.

DOJ Suing Carahsoft To Obtain SAP-Related Communications

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been looking into SAP and Carahsoft since at least 2022, Bloomberg reported, with the DOJ recently taking Carahsoft to civil court over a request to turn over internal communications related to “SAP software, cloud storage, and related hardware and services."

"We are not aware of any criminal investigation that SAP is involved in relating to Carahsoft," an SAP spokesperson told Investopedia. "All we can say is that there has been a CIVIL investigation by the DOJ, and SAP has been cooperating with the investigation since the beginning."

Carahsoft's offices were also raided by the FBI Tuesday, and a spokesperson told Bloomberg that the search was because a company Carahsoft has done business with is being investigated, making it unclear if the FBI search is related to SAP. Carahsoft and software maker VMWare agreed to pay a $75. million settlement in 2015 over allegations they overcharged the government.

Carahsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SAP shares were down 2% at $226.34 in pre-market trading Wednesday.

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