Negotiation Archives - Page 2 of 20

A Treaty That Outlived the Reich

On 20 July 1933, the Holy See and the German Reich concluded the Reichskonkordat, a treaty on the Catholic Church in Germany. It is still in force. Article 21 makes Catholic religious instruction a regular school subject. On 26 March 1957, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on the treaty. It found that the concordat had been validly concluded and never terminated. Violations had led to protests, not to its end. The concordat therefore still existed and bound the Federal Republic.

The same ruling let the states depart from the treaty’s school rules under German law, while the treaty still bound Germany under international law.

Payments Since 1803

Every year, the German states pay money to the churches. These Staatsleistungen, state payments, go back mainly to 1803. In that year, church property was given to secular rulers, and the new rulers took over the church’s obligations. In 1919, the Weimar Constitution ordered that the payments be durch die Landesgesetzgebung abgelöst, bought out by state law. It added: Die Grundsätze hierfür stellt das Reich auf. The Reich sets the principles for this. The Basic Law of 1949 took this article over. The principles have never been set, and so the payments continue. For 2022, the states planned about 602 million euros for the Catholic and Protestant churches alone.

Ablösen in this legal sense means to end against compensation. The payments can stop only against compensation, and in more than a century no federal law has set the terms.

Never Asking for a Raise

Über Geld spricht man nicht. One does not talk about money. Statista opened its report on the StepStone salary survey of 2017 with this sentence. StepStone had asked about 60,000 skilled workers and managers across Germany how often they ask for a raise. About 34 percent ask once a year. About 22 percent ask every two years. One in four women and almost one in five men said they never ask.

Negotiable Basis

VB or VHB. Every German who has sold a bicycle or a sofa through classified ads knows the letters. They stand for Verhandlungsbasis, basis for negotiation. A seller who writes “100 Euro VB” announces that the price is open. One who writes Festpreis, fixed price, announces that it is not. The tech magazine GIGA tells buyers that sellers will often go down 10 to 25 percent from a VB price. It also warns them not to offer five euros and a bar of chocolate for an item at 100 euros.

The price law for businesses has a matching rule. A trader must state the total price, and may add a note that he is willing to negotiate. The note is allowed only where it matches die allgemeine Verkehrsauffassung, the general view of what is customary.

The Vocabulary of Price Tricks

der Mondpreis — Moon price. A price set at random and far too high. In retail jargon it is also an invented “recommended price,” printed only so that the real price looks like a bargain.

das Lockvogelangebot — Decoy-bird offer. A Lockvogel was a captive bird used to lure other birds. The offer draws the customer in for something else. Competition law bans several forms of it.

der Apothekenpreis — Pharmacy price. In colloquial use, a price that is out of proportion to the product.

die Abzocke — Rip-off. The word comes from zocken, to gamble.

der Nepp — Overcharging. Das ist der reinste Nepp! That is a pure rip-off!

The 30-Day Price Rule

Since 28 May 2022, a German shop that advertises a price cut must state the lowest price it charged in the 30 days before the cut. The rule is Section 11 of the Preisangabenverordnung, the price display regulation. Aldi Süd tested it. In a brochure it offered bananas at 1.29 euros per kilo and advertised a 23 percent reduction. The reduction was measured from the last price, 1.69 euros. The lowest price of the past 30 days was also 1.29 euros, and it appeared only in small print. The consumer center of Baden-Württemberg sued. On 26 September 2024 the European Court of Justice ruled that a reduction must be calculated from that lowest earlier price. The Düsseldorf regional court then ruled against Aldi.

No Price Talks After the Bids Are Opened

When a German public body builds a school or a road, it awards the work under the VOB/A, the standard award rules for construction. Section 15 covers the time between the opening of the bids and the award. The client may ask a bidder only for explanations, for example about whether his price is reasonable. Then the rule is plain: Verhandlungen, besonders über Änderung der Angebote oder Preise, sind unstatthaft. Negotiations, especially about changing the bids or the prices, are not permitted. The only exception covers alternative bids and bids based on a performance program. There, small technical changes may have to be agreed, and the price may change with them.

Same Drug, Same Price

A prescription drug costs the same at every pharmacy in Germany. The Medicines Act requires ein einheitlicher Apothekenabgabepreis, a uniform pharmacy price. The Arzneimittelpreisverordnung, the drug price regulation, builds that price by formula. The pharmacy takes its purchase price, adds 3 percent, and adds a fixed fee per pack. On 19 October 2016 the European Court of Justice ruled that this price binding could not be applied to mail-order pharmacies in other EU countries. German pharmacies remained bound. Parliament answered with the Vor-Ort-Apotheken-Stärkungsgesetz, the law to strengthen local pharmacies. From 15 December 2020 it banned rebates on prescription drugs for patients with statutory health insurance, also for foreign mail-order pharmacies.

Holy and Inviolable

The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years’ War in the Empire in 1648. The Osnabrück treaty opens with the wish for a christlicher allgemeiner und immerwährender Friede, a Christian, universal and perpetual peace. Its Article V takes up the religious peace of 1555. That peace shall be als gültig anerkannt und als heilig und unverletzlich eingehalten, recognized as valid and kept as holy and inviolable. The same paragraph declares void any objection or protest, from clergy or laity, inside or outside the Empire, at any time. The Peace of Westphalia became a fundamental law of the Empire. The Pope protested against it anyway and did not recognize it.

Words That Seal a Deal

Topp! — Agreed! Duden defines it as an exclamation that confirms an agreement just made, often sealed with a handshake. The word comes from Low German legal language, where it named the handshake in a legal transaction.

Schlag ein! — Strike in! It asks the other person to take the offered hand and so confirm the deal.

Hand drauf! — Hand on it!

Ist gebongt. — It is rung up. Duden says it means that something is agreed and will be done as discussed. The word comes from the cash register.

Versprochen ist versprochen und wird auch nicht gebrochen. — Promised is promised, and it will not be broken. Children say it to each other.

In Goethe’s Faust, the wager with the devil is closed with the same word. Faust: Die Wette biet ich! I offer the wager! Mephistopheles: Topp! Faust: Und Schlag auf Schlag! And hand strikes hand!