September 2001
A Big Deal
Tired of the lack of sales and bargains to be had in Germany? Do you delight in talking shop owners into a discount? The government has just recently done you a favor. On August 1, the
Rabattgesetz (discount law), a law forbidding discounting and haggling of any kind in Germany and ratified in 1933, was deleted from the German constitution. Where salesmen were formerly restricted to a three-percent maximum discount, they are now free to mark down goods without restriction. Advertising gifts added to larger purchases are no longer limited to sweets or pens or the like, but can now be more generous. Nonetheless, German shopping malls will not turn into oriental bazaars. The fair-trade law remains in full force making obvious dumping prices illegal.
