A COMMIT issued against any transaction except the outermost one doesn't commit any changes to disk - it merely decrements the@@TRANCOUNT automatic variable. A ROLLBACK, on the other hand, works regardless of the level at which it is issued, but rolls back all transactions, regardless of the nesting level. Though this is counterintuitive, there's a very good reason for it. If a nested COMMIT actually wrote changes permanently to disk, an outer ROLLBACK wouldn't be able to reverse those changes since they would already be recorded permanently.