For a new drug in Germany, the price is negotiated, but not freely. First the Federal Joint Committee decides whether the drug has an added benefit over existing treatment. Then the umbrella body of the statutory health insurers negotiates a reimbursement price with the manufacturer. The talks take place on the basis of that decision. As a rule, if the committee found no added benefit, the price should not lead to higher annual treatment costs than the comparison therapy. If the two sides do not agree within six months, an arbitration board sets the terms, including the price.
Mother Courage Haggles Too Long
Bertolt Brecht’s play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, Mother Courage and Her Children, had its first performance in Zurich on 19 April 1941. It is often read in German schools. It is set in the Thirty Years’ War. Anna Fierling, called Mother Courage, follows the armies with her wagon and sells goods to the soldiers. Her son Schweizerkas is arrested. She could buy him free. German Wikipedia sums up what happens next: Doch sie verhandelt zu lange um die Auslösesumme für ihren Sohn … But she negotiates too long over the ransom for her son. He is shot.
Haggling in a Department Store
In July 2014 the Berlin newspaper taz sent Kamal M. into a Karstadt department store to haggle. He was 44 and a well-known trader at Berlin flea markets. The paper explained why the experiment was worth reporting. Bargaining in a store is allowed, auch wenn es kaum einer weiß, even if hardly anyone knows it. Kamal M. failed with a suitcase that was already reduced from 189 to 99 euros. With shoes he got 10 percent, the most the salesman was allowed to give. With a set of Fissler pots he brought the price down from 299 to 224 euros, and a knife came with it. His advice was never to haggle in front of other customers. He also avoided the word Rabatt, discount, and spoke of a price reduction.
Discounts at the Car Dealer
Buying a new car is one place where bargaining is normal. In a covert study published in April 2026, the automobile club ADAC sent test buyers to car dealers in different regions. For each of 14 cars they held eight sales talks. In more than three quarters of the talks, the first offer already included a discount. With the reductions given after the buyer asked, almost 90 percent of the talks ended with some kind of lower price. The largest reductions came in the first offer or after the first request. A second or third request rarely brought more.
Most of the discount was already in the first offer. Bargaining added little.
Fees That Cannot Be Negotiated
A contract to buy land in Germany must be recorded by a notary. The notary’s fee comes from a statute, the court and notary costs act. Section 125 begins: Vereinbarungen über die Höhe der Kosten sind unwirksam. Agreements about the amount of the fees are void. The exceptions that follow do not cover a land purchase. The buyer cannot ask the notary for a better price, and the notary cannot offer one. Lawyers have a similar rule. The Federal Lawyers’ Act says that it is not permitted geringere Gebühren und Auslagen zu vereinbaren oder zu fordern, to agree on or charge lower fees and expenses than the lawyers’ fee act provides.
The lawyers’ rule has a limit. For work outside court, a lower fee may be agreed.
Taxi Fares
In a German city, taxi fares are set by ordinance. The Passenger Transport Act lets the state government fix them, and it may pass this power on by ordinance. The fixed fares dürfen nicht über- oder unterschritten werden. They may be neither exceeded nor undercut, and they must be applied equally to every passenger. The driver cannot give a discount, and the passenger cannot offer less.
The law now has one opening. For trips booked in advance, the ordinance may set fixed prices, or a minimum and a maximum within which the fare is agreed before the trip.
The Expert’s Estimate Comes First
Bares für Rares, cash for rarities, has run on ZDF since 2013. Horst Lichter hosts it. People bring an old object to sell. Before any haggling, an expert examines the object and estimates its value. The seller names a price. A seller whose lowest acceptable price is above the expert’s estimate gets no Händlerkarte, the card that admits him to the dealers’ room. Inside, the dealers bid and bargain, and they do not know the estimate. The seller may refuse the best bid and take the object home. An evening special on 15 May 2017 had 6.38 million viewers.
The haggling is the entertainment. It starts only after an expert has said what the object is worth.
When the Customer Asks for a Discount
Viele Kunden fragen bei einem Beratungsgespräch auch nach einem Rabatt. Many customers ask for a discount during the first consultation. The Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung, the newspaper of the German skilled trades, wrote this in August 2024. It went on: if craftsmen calculate correctly, a discount is often hardly possible. Its advice is to offer a reduction only with cheaper material or with fewer details. The customer then sees that a lower price means lower quality. The paper expects that he will usually wave the idea away and pay the quoted price. Its rule is short. A customer who wants a discount must give something for it.
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.