The Hungarian Competition Office imposes a € 5.6 M fine in software public tenders and refuses to apply the de minimis doctrine (SAP)

In 2004, the Hungarian Competition Office (HCO) launched proceedings against SAP Hungary Kft. (SAP), International Business Machines Magyarország Kft. (IBM), International System House Kft. (ISH), Synergon Informatikai Rendszereket Tervező és Kivitelező Rt. (Synergon) and ORACLE Hungary Kft. (Oracle) regarding their behaviour in connection with five public procurement tenders published in the same year by five Hungarian universities. The subject of the tenders was the procurement of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for all of the universities, and, in addition to that, the procurement of clinical system software in the case of three universities with medical faculties and university clinics. All tenders but one were subject to a two-stage public procurement procedure during