How do SLA credits work?

When the SLA is breached, the customer receives credit compensation (e.g. a percentage discount on the monthly fee). Credits are usually the only available remedy for downtime unless the contract states otherwise.

Can I cap the liability in an SLA?

Yes. A limitation of liability clause in an SLA is common and legally valid — typically capped at the value of one month's or one year's fee.

What is an escalation matrix and does it belong in an SLA?

An escalation matrix defines who the client contacts for different severity levels of an incident (L1/L2/L3). It belongs in the SLA as an annex and ensures rapid resolution of critical outages.

How is SLA compliance measured?

Typically measured monthly against total nominal operating time. Monitoring records (Uptime Robot, Datadog, etc.) serve as evidence in SLA disputes.

Commercial

SLA — Service Level Agreement

SLA — measure quality, not just promises

Define uptime, response times and penalties for non-compliance.

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Companies with an SLA experience 35 % fewer unplanned outages

The average cost of a system outage for an SME is €4,000 per hour

SLA credits motivate vendors to achieve 28 % better uptime

An SLA covers system uptime, incident response times, planned maintenance and penalties. AI generates SLAs for IT, cloud, customer support or facility management.

Legal context

An SLA is a contractual document typically attached to the main service agreement. Penalties must be proportionate to actual damages, otherwise a court may reduce them under the moderation right in commercial law.

Commercial Code § 545 — court's moderation right over disproportionate contractual penalties

Legal basis & glossary

When to use a SLA — Service Level Agreement

When outsourcing IT infrastructure or cloud services
When providing customer support with guaranteed response times
For facility management or cleaning services
When you need to formalise a service support level

What you get

Uptime (99.9 %+ SLA)
Incident response times
Penalties and credits
Planned maintenance windows

How it works

From idea to signature

Uptime (99.9 %+ SLA)

Incident response times

Penalties and credits

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about SLA — Service Level Agreement

99.9 % uptime means a maximum of 8.76 hours of downtime per year or 43.8 minutes per month. 99.99 % ('four nines') is a maximum of 52 minutes per year.