A landscaping firm's website rarely shows a price — and when it does, the figure is usually too brief. An hourly rate with no note on VAT, an entry price per square metre without saying what it covers, a winter discount with no reference value: such statements take two minutes to write and are easy to challenge. German price indication rules do not force you to publish prices; they govern how a stated figure has to look in order to hold up. On top of that come two subjects that trade businesses routinely underestimate: advertising with self-evident matters — things that apply anyway — and the limits of what may be said about competitors. Both lead less often to a court case than to a letter with a deadline, and both can be avoided before they arise. This article sorts the rules so that a manager can work through their own pricing page in an hour and fix the conspicuous parts. It does not replace legal advice; assessing a specific case remains a matter for a lawyer.
Key takeaways
- German price indication rules apply towards consumers: anyone addressing private clients states the total price including VAT, while a net price remains permissible towards businesses and public authorities as long as it is clearly marked as such.
- The total price covers every component that arises unavoidably — travel charge, disposal, small-order surcharge — whereas genuinely optional extras may be listed separately alongside it.
- A from-price is permissible as long as it is achievable for a service actually offered and the unit of reference is stated: per square metre, per linear metre, per hour or per site visit.
- For announced price reductions the ordinance requires the lowest total price of the preceding 30 days to be stated; a blanket winter discount with no stated starting price does not meet that.
- Anyone advertising statutory self-evident matters such as the warranty as a special service, or passing sweeping judgement on how other firms work, risks a formal warning even where the statement was well meant.
When the Price Indication Rules Apply at All
The German Price Indication Ordinance is not a law that forces trade businesses to publish prices. For construction work in landscaping that is calculated individually, there is generally no duty to maintain a price list on the website. The ordinance starts somewhere else: it governs how a price has to look once it is stated. So anyone who writes no figure at all triggers no obligation. Anyone who writes a figure has bound themselves to a set of rules that does not tolerate half statements.
The second point is the scope. The ordinance protects consumers — people commissioning work for private purposes. Towards companies, property managers, housing associations and local authorities it does not apply in the same way. For a landscaping business that is no academic distinction but the heart of the problem: the same website addresses the homeowner with a terraced-house garden and the property manager with forty sites. As soon as private clients are addressed — and with a publicly accessible website that is the rule — the stricter requirements apply.
Alongside the ordinance sits the Act Against Unfair Competition. It applies regardless of whether prices are involved and covers every statement about your own business, your own services and those of others. In practice neither set of rules is enforced by authorities but by competitors and associations — through a formal warning with a cease-and-desist declaration, a bill of costs and a short deadline. That is precisely why the half afternoon it takes to work through your own texts is worth spending.
Scope
The ordinance takes effect towards consumers. Offers made purely to companies, property managers and public authorities do not fall under it in the same way.
Total price
What must be stated is the amount payable in the end — including VAT and every component that arises unavoidably with the service in question.
Unit of reference
For services it must be clear what the price relates to: per square metre, per linear metre, per hour, per site visit or per property and year.
Price reduction
Where a price is presented as reduced, the lowest total price of the preceding 30 days must be given. That covers limited offers as much as struck-through prices.
Misleading claims
Any statement creating a false impression is impermissible — including by omitting material information, not only by carrying a wrong figure.
Competitors
Comparisons are allowed where they are objective, verifiable and relate to comparable services. Denigration and unproven assertions are not.
Net or Gross: the Audience Decides
The most common mistake on trade websites is the net price shown without a flag. An hourly rate of 62 euros reads as 62 euros; when the quotation later says 73.78 euros, a conversation follows that nobody wants to have. Towards consumers the gross price applies, that is the amount including VAT. The standard rate is 19 per cent (UStG); individual supplies such as plant stock may be classified differently, which is a tax question rather than an advertising one and belongs with your tax adviser.
Towards commercial clients the net price is customary and permissible — it is also the more meaningful figure there, because VAT is treated as a pass-through item. On a website reaching both groups, only a clean separation helps. Two approaches have proved themselves: either a consistently gross presentation with the net value in brackets, or separate areas with unambiguous headings, for instance one page for private gardens and one for grounds maintenance. Whoever chooses the second option should put the note about the audience above the price rather than into a footnote.
A special case concerns firms using the small-business rule under section 19 of the VAT Act. They do not show VAT, so the stated price is at the same time the final price. An addition such as plus VAT would simply be wrong here. A short note that no VAT is shown under that rule is the better choice — it explains the invoice before anyone asks. How such information fits onto a pricing page without turning into a wall of figures is a design question; we describe it using our own example on the page about our prices.
The unflagged net price is the classic error
The Total Price: What Belongs Inside and What May Sit Beside It
The total price is the amount a client actually has to spend for the service described. The guiding question is therefore not what you would like to invoice separately, but what arises unavoidably. Everything added without a choice belongs in the stated price, or must at least appear within the same statement. Everything the client can genuinely decline may sit beside it and be quantified on its own.
In landscaping it is usually the same four items that touch this line. The travel charge arises with every visit and is therefore no optional extra — unless you define a radius within which it is waived and name that radius. Disposal costs for spoil, green waste or old surfacing depend on volume; stating the basis of calculation helps, for instance per cubic metre against a weighbridge ticket. The small-order or minimum-order surcharge is existential for the costing and the most frequent surprise for the client. Finally there is the payment method: costs arising with a particular way of paying must not become visible only at the last step.
For the website this means a price rarely stands alone. It needs a short line beneath it naming the scope, and a pointer to what may be charged in addition. That is not legal contortion but good communication — most questions during first contact revolve around exactly these items. Translating them into an enquiry form that asks about area, access and disposal at the outset saves the clarification by phone and supplies the basis for a sound quotation.
- VAT: included, or expressly not shown under the small-business rule
- Travel: included up to a stated radius, charged per kilometre beyond it
- Disposal: name the basis of calculation — per cubic metre, per tonne, against evidence
- Minimum order value or small-order surcharge: state both the amount and the threshold
- Materials: included, measured on site, or chosen by the client — assign this unambiguously
- Date of the prices: give the date and make clear that the written quotation prevails
From-Prices: Permitted, but Tied to Conditions
The from-price is the obvious solution in landscaping, because hardly two projects are alike. It is also permissible — as long as two conditions are met. First, the stated amount must be achievable for a service actually offered. An entry price that no job has reached in three years is bait and therefore open to challenge. Second, it must be clear what the price relates to. From 4,900 euros for a terrace says nothing until the area, the surfacing and the sub-base are named.
For services the unit of reference is the decisive point. Per square metre, per linear metre, per hour, per site visit or per property and year — each of these leads to a different expectation. A hedge cut priced per linear metre also needs the height, because the effort changes sharply once ladders or a platform are required. Lawn care priced per square metre needs the minimum area, otherwise the figure simply does not apply to a terraced-house garden of eighty square metres.
A from-price becomes most robust when a worked example stands beside it. One concrete project with area, build-up and final sum makes the order of magnitude tangible without committing you to a fixed price. It has a second effect as well: enquiries that were always in a different league never arrive in the first place. In our experience the effect of such examples on the mix of enquiries is more marked than that of any additional block of copy (project experience).
| Statement on the website | Does it hold up? | What is missing or should be added |
|---|---|---|
| Lawn care from 0.45 euros per square metre | Yes, if that rate is awarded | Minimum area, cutting frequency, travel |
| Terrace from 4,900 euros | Only with a unit of reference | Area, surfacing and sub-base of the example |
| Maintenance from 39 euros a month | Ambiguous | Term, scope of service, VAT |
| The lowest prices in the region | not included | Blanket top-position claim, not verifiable |
| Travel at no charge | Yes, where accurate | State the radius beyond which costs arise |
| Prices on request | included | No figure stated, so no duty triggered |
Struck-Through Prices, Winter Offers and the 30-Day Look Back
Seasonal offers make sense in landscaping: booking in February eases the scheduling, and a reduction is a fair means to that end. Since the ordinance was recast, however, announced price reductions carry an additional requirement. Anyone presenting a price as reduced must state the lowest total price applied during the 30 days (PAngV) before the reduction. The purpose is to make the briefly inflated starting price unattractive.
For trade businesses this feels alien at first, because construction work is not shelf goods. In practice it affects everyone working on the website with struck-through amounts, with a percentage or with wording such as instead of 1,200 euros. As soon as a reference price is asserted, it has to be provable. The simplest course is to phrase the offer differently: not as a reduction against an earlier price, but as a standalone offer with a clear scope and a clear window — for instance a winter price for orders placed by the end of February and carried out in spring.
The same logic applies to percentages without a reference. Fifteen per cent off is not a price statement but an assertion about a difference. Without the starting value nobody can follow what they are saving, and without evidence the claim cannot be defended in a dispute. If you want to work on capacity outside the main season, presenting it through seasonal planning is usually more effective than a discount banner — and considerably easier to keep clean.
A standalone offer is simpler than a reduction
When a Statement Counts as Misleading
A statement is not misleading only once it is false. Under the Act Against Unfair Competition it is enough that it creates an inaccurate impression — and that impression is measured by how an average reader understands the words, not by how they were meant. That is why the sentence we have worked in this region since 1985 is problematic where the business was founded in 2019 and only the owner's professional experience reaches back that far. The statement is true at its core and false in its impression.
The second angle is misleading by omission: material information must not be withheld where it matters for the commercial decision. With prices that concerns exactly the additional items from the previous section. With services it concerns limitations that would only become visible after the order — a maintenance contract covering just twelve visits, a winter service running on weekdays only, a tree inspection that excludes climbing work. That note belongs next to the price, not in the order confirmation.
A third area concerns qualifications and credentials. Statements such as master craftsman's business, certified or inspected are permissible where they are accurate and where it is clear what they refer to. Landscaping is a trade that may be practised without a master certificate under the German Trade and Crafts Code (HwO); the title is therefore a genuine differentiator, but only where it exists. The same holds for statements about company size, the number of completed projects and for reviews: anyone displaying client reviews must state whether and how it is ensured that they come from actual clients (UWG). What that looks like in practice is described under reviews in landscaping.
The decisive test is not whether a statement is true, but what impression it leaves with someone who does not yet know the business.
Advertising With Self-Evident Matters
There is a category of statements that are true and still fail as sales arguments: advertising with self-evident matters. What is meant is presenting a right or a property that exists anyway as a special achievement of the provider. The annex to the Act Against Unfair Competition lists this case expressly as impermissible (UWG). The reason is plain: presenting a statutory duty as a bonus suggests that other providers do not offer it.
In the trades it is always the same handful of phrases. The warranty leads the field — it is set by statute, and its duration depends on the type of work; work on a building carries a longer period than other contracted work (BGB). A banner saying we give five years of warranty may therefore, depending on the classification, be no more than a restatement of the law. It is similar with the free estimate: a cost estimate is in case of doubt not remunerated (BGB), so announcing that you will not charge for it describes nothing special. The right of withdrawal for contracts concluded away from business premises is likewise a statutory matter of course rather than a service promise.
The good news: plenty of statements are not self-evident and still convince. Public liability insurance is not mandatory for landscaping firms, so its existence and its cover can be named. An assurance going beyond the statutory period is a genuine argument where its scope and conditions are described. An establishment assurance for woody plants with defined care obligations likewise. And finally everything concerning the process: a named contact person, a survey appointment within a stated period, site clearance, photographic documentation of the sub-base. Such points are concrete, checkable and genuinely distinguishing.
- Self-evident and therefore no argument: statutory warranty, unremunerated cost estimate, right of withdrawal for doorstep contracts, a proper invoice
- Nameable because voluntary: public liability cover with the sum insured, assurances beyond the statutory period, establishment assurance with defined care obligations
- Nameable because verifiable: master certificate, qualified tree inspector, certifications with issuer and validity, memberships with evidence
- Nameable because observable: a named contact person, survey within a stated period, photographic documentation of the sub-base, site clearance on completion
- Delicate without evidence: figures on completed projects, years in business, awards, and the origin of published reviews
What You May Not Say About Competitors
Comparative advertising is permitted in Germany but tied to conditions. A comparison must relate to services meeting the same need, it must concern objective, material and verifiable characteristics, and it may neither denigrate a competitor nor take unfair advantage of their reputation (UWG). Comparing your own sub-base build-up in paving with a specifically named alternative would therefore be possible in principle — in practice it usually fails because a sound basis for comparison cannot be established.
The prohibitions are considerably clearer. Denigrating remarks about a competitor are impermissible, and a disparaging allusion already counts. Assertions of fact about another firm, its goods or its services that are capable of damaging its business are impermissible where they cannot be proved true — and the burden of proof lies with whoever makes them. In practice that means the remark about a competitor made at a client's kitchen table does not belong on the website.
Blanket criticism of the sector is particularly underestimated. Formulations such as many firms skimp on the sub-base, others leave the site untidy or with most of them you wait three weeks for a quotation look harmless at first glance because no name is mentioned. They remain delicate as soon as the circle of those affected is small in the local market — in a rural district with a two-digit number of landscaping firms it is. The more effective route is the positive one anyway: describe your own sub-base, your own response time, your own handover. That convinces more and cannot be attacked. The page on the landscaping website sets the frame for such passages.
Three sentences that belong on no trade website
Reviewing the Pricing Page in One Pass
The effort involved in a full review is manageable if you approach it in a structured way. Take the pages carrying figures — usually the pricing page, the service pages per trade, the home page and any section with offers. Test every figure against the same five questions and note the places where you hesitate. One winter evening is enough for a mid-sized site.
It is worth consolidating the result into a fixed block of text that sits beneath every price statement and is maintained in one place. That keeps the wording consistent even when a service is added later. The following sample block shows how it can look — the amounts in it are placeholders and no price recommendation.
Collect the figures
Open every page carrying an amount, a percentage or a period. Write the locations into a list so that it stays traceable later what was actually reviewed.
Determine the audience
Decide per page whether it addresses private clients, commercial clients or both. That determines whether prices run gross or net and which note belongs beside them.
Complete the total price
Assign travel, disposal, minimum order value and materials: included, charged separately or optional. Whatever arises unavoidably belongs inside the statement itself.
Substantiate from-prices
For every entry price find a real job from recent months that reached it. If none can be found, the price is raised or the statement removed.
Remove statements about others
Delete every passage judging competitors or the sector and replace it with a description of your own way of working. The same goes for claims to a top position.
Place and date the text block
Insert the qualifying block consistently beneath all price statements, give it a date, and diary the review for the next winter break.
Price information on this page
Lawn care from 0.45 EUR per square metre and cut, from 150 sqm
Hedge cutting from 6.50 EUR per linear metre, up to 2.00 m height
Paving from 95 EUR per square metre including sub-base
Skilled hour rate 62 EUR
All amounts include statutory VAT.
Travel within 25 km included, beyond that 0.90 EUR per kilometre.
Disposal charged against evidence. Minimum order value 350 EUR.
As at: 01 March 2026. Only the written quotation is binding.One last point concerns upkeep. Price statements age faster than any other text on a website, and an amount from the season before last is not merely awkward but can create an expectation during first contact that you do not want to meet. Put the price review into the same rhythm as the rest of your website maintenance — once a year, ideally before spring. In projects we regularly see that the substance of these businesses is markedly better than their presentation: a firm such as Viktor Waldbauer Garten- und Landschaftsbau in Nordstemmen works from sand slabs through terraces and cisterns to complete garden installations, and a price presentation has to be able to reflect exactly that range without becoming incomplete.