Teradata Tells U.S. Judge Economic Power Over Tied Product Sufficient Proof of Anticompetitive Harm

David Cross was featured in MLex Market Insight’s coverage of Teradata Corp. v. SAP SE, in which Teradata accused rival SAP SE of using an illegal tying scheme to cement its dominance in enterprise systems.

Acting for Teradata, David told U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick of the Northern District of California that there is “no dispute” in the case that SAP is forcing its customers to buy its HANA software even though customers don’t want it.

“We don’t even actually have to show market dominance,” David said during a hearing on a motion for summary judgment. “We just have to show economic power over a tying product can be sufficient” to prove harm to competition.

SAP has sufficient market power to force customers to buy HANA, he argued. “If customers are forced to buy the tied product, that’s not only evidence of market power in the tied market, but it’s evidence of harm to competition in the tied market.”

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