Copyright Reuters

Oct 28 (Reuters) - Software giant SAP must face a lawsuit by competing technology company Celonis that accuses it of illegally monopolizing a segment of the business software market, a federal judge ruled on Monday. Sign up here. Chhabria denied SAP’s bid to dismiss claims that it monopolized the market for access to data stored in its enterprise resource planning software. The judge threw out a claim that SAP was illegally "tying" the sale of one product with another. SAP, also based in Germany, in a statement said it was pleased the court dismissed part of the lawsuit. The company, which has denied any wrongdoing, said it will "remain steadfast in our position and will continue to vigorously defend ourselves and our innovations." Celonis said in a statement that the ruling "greenlighted virtually all of our claims, in a resounding victory." Companies use enterprise resource planning software to operate payroll, billing, accounting and other business processes. Process mining software is then used to extract and analyze data from within an ERP application. Celonis claimed SAP changed longstanding policies to restrict its customers’ ability to extract their own data from within SAP's enterprise resource planning applications. The complaint also accused SAP of threatening to withhold support from customers who used Celonis. The judge gave Celonis a chance to file an amended complaint within 14 days. The case is Celonis SE et al v. SAP SE et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-cv-02519-VC. For plaintiff: Jennifer Fleury and Justin Bernick of Hogan Lovells For defendant: David Kiernan of Jones Day and Ryan Phair of Paul Hastings Read more: Reporting by Mike Scarcella