Which prices must be on the page
One term carries the whole duty. A trader offering goods or services to consumers has to state total prices, defined as the price payable including VAT and other price components, and where a price is itemised the total has to be highlighted. Net prices next to consumer offers are the standard mistake.
What the term means
The obligation is short: a trader who offers goods or services to consumers has to state total prices. The definition does the work: the total price is the price payable including VAT and other price components.
So a figure that excludes VAT is not a total price when the offer is aimed at consumers, whatever note sits beside it. The same is true of a component that only appears later in the process.
There is a second sentence worth knowing: if a price is itemised, the total has to be highlighted. A breakdown is allowed, it just must not bury the number that the reader is meant to compare.
What that costs you in practice
Count where prices appear on a small site: the services page, the offer page, any printed sheet reproduced online, and the confirmation. That is typically 4 places, and each one has to carry a total rather than a component.
Where a unit price applies, it is defined the same way: the price per unit of quantity, likewise including VAT and other components. Two definitions, 1 principle: what a consumer has to pay, all in.
If you sell across the border, add the Spanish requirement, which sits in the same article as the imprint duty: clear and exact information about the price of the product or service is one of the 7 items required by Article 10 LSSI. Germany handles pricing in a separate regulation, Spain puts it in the identity article, and a business operating in both needs both.
| Element | Part of the total price | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Net price | Yes, as a component | Not a total price on its own |
| VAT | Yes | Named in the definition |
| Other price components | Yes | Named in the definition |
| Breakdown of the price | Allowed | Total must be highlighted |
| Unit price | Own definition | Also including VAT and components |
Two habits that keep it right
Write the total first and the breakdown afterwards, not the other way round. The layout then satisfies the highlighting rule without anybody having to think about it.
And review prices where they appear rather than in your price list. The outdated figure is almost never in the list, it is on the page nobody remembered was still online.
One more count makes the review quick. 4 places with prices, checked 2 times a year, is 8 checks, and each takes under 5 minutes. That is 40 minutes a year for the duty that produces the most avoidable warnings.
Questions and answers
Can I show net prices to consumers?
May I itemise a price?
Does this apply to services too?
What applies in Spain?
Sources
- Section 3 Preisangabenverordnung (PAngV) The duty to state total prices and to highlight the total
- Section 2 Preisangabenverordnung (PAngV) The definitions of total price and unit price
