Cost price

The acquisition price (including subscription price , English cost price ) is in accounting and trading the price of the commodities ( commodities ) in shopping be purchased.

General

The cost price plays a decisive role in evaluating the goods or services procured . If you multiply the cost of sales by the cost price, you get the cost of sales . Sometimes sees the literature , the cost synonymous with the cost price, but it is at the cost already is a valued using the purchase price asset . The acquisition costs are also a certain legal concept of commercial law , to § 255 para. 1 HGB , a legal definition holds, and accounting standards IAS 2.11 and IAS 16:16. However, the purchase price is obtained if the purchase price is reduced by the purchase price reductions and increased by the ancillary purchase costs.

The cost price is a term used in wholesaling and retailing that resells the purchased goods / services without further processing. In the industry it is called in the procurement of raw materials , consumables and supplies also at times of cost prices, but here the term purchase price has prevailed.

calculation

The starting point is the list price, which does not take input tax into account:

   Listenpreis (ohne Vorsteuer)
   - Preisnachlass 
   = Einkaufspreis
   + direkt zurechenbare Nebenkosten (Bezugskosten)
   = Einstandspreis

If the seller bears all purchase costs ( commercial clause " free domicile "), the purchase and cost prices are identical for the purchasing trading company . The input tax is not taken into account in the purchase price because it is deductible from the VAT included in the sales price . This input tax deduction ensures that the sales tax is only borne economically by the end consumer . On the progress made in obtaining discounts include rebates , discounts or bonuses to the additional costs to the storage include freight , postage , transport insurance , Warenumschließung , handling costs , duties or excise taxes .

The capture of discounts and additional costs with the result that the goods sold in the course of the financial year sold goods indicates no longer purchase prices, but at cost.

Business aspects

Cost price for stock valuation

If the purchased goods are not used immediately and are first put into storage, a valuation problem arises. The incoming goods into the warehouse usually take place at different times. There the articles mix with the existing articles of the same type. Different consumption sequence methods are available for the different cost prices . As a rule, the FIFO principle is suitable for removal, which ensures that the items in the warehouse are continuously turned over and that there is no loss of value on non-renewed stocks. However, the FIFO principle is not suitable for manual costing for inventory valuation; rather, the cost price for externally procured items is usually determined as the moving average price . If the cost price is calculated automatically (e.g. within an ERP system), various evaluation simplification methods can be selected. FIFO or LIFO (others are no longer permitted in Germany according to the BilMoG ) can be selected as an alternative to the average assessment as the consumption sequence procedure, if these do not contradict the actual consumption sequence. The preferred method according to the German Commercial Code (HGB) can be: This can be used, for example, for articles that require serial or batch numbers if this additional information is entered in the process chain when handling the article.

Business performance indicators

The cost price is part of several business indicators . The so-called calculation surcharge is the percentage margin between the cost price and the list sales price in retail :

${\displaystyle {\text{Kalkulationszuschlag}}={\frac {{\text{Nettoverkaufspreis}}-{\text{Einstandspreis}}}{\text{Einstandspreis}}}\cdot 100\,\%}$

In retail, the gross sales price is used in the formula instead of the net sales price. Changes in the cost price can result from a change in the purchase price, but also from a change in the purchase and ancillary costs or the price discounts received. If a procurement source increases its sales price (= purchase price for the purchasing trading company), this increases the cost price and vice versa - all other things being equal. This also applies to the purchase and ancillary costs and the price discounts received.

The trading margin, in turn, refers to the sales price as a percentage and not to the cost price:

${\displaystyle {\text{Handelsspanne}}={\frac {{\text{Nettoverkaufspreis}}-{\text{Einstandspreis}}}{\text{Nettoverkaufspreis}}}\cdot 100\,\%}$

Changes in the cost price, in turn - if the trading margin remains constant - have an effect on the sales price in the price calculation , causing pass-through effects.

The amount of the purchase price is negotiated between two companies between sales at the seller and purchase at the buyer. The purchase price is more negotiable, the more knowledge about market developments and the more bargaining power the buyer has. In the price calculation , the direct technological costs for the production material can be assessed at the material transfer price on the basis of the purchase price or the cost price.

Prohibition of sales below cost price

According to the established case law of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), the entrepreneur is fundamentally free to set his own prices within the framework of the current market economy- oriented economic system. According to this ruling, a time-limited offer of individual records below cost price without special circumstances is not necessarily anti-competitive . On the other hand, the permanent sale of products below the purchase price unduly affects smaller competitors and must therefore be prohibited in principle. The starting point of the litigation cited was the intervention of the Federal Cartel Office in the price war of German food retailers in September 2000 with the ban on Walmart , Aldi Nord and Lidl from selling products below the purchase price. The BGH forbade this practice if it was carried out by companies with market power over a longer period of time, but at least if they acted systematically.

A sale below cost or cost price was, according to the case law , to be classified as unfair since 1979 if it represented a general market obstruction . It is to be answered in the affirmative if the price undercutting is objectively not justified and can lead to competitors being forced out of the market and competition in the relevant market being completely or almost completely eliminated. The legislature took up this case law in the 6th amendment to the GWB of January 1999. According to this, the sale of goods and commercial services below the cost price “companies with market power superior to small and medium-sized competitors” is prohibited if it is not only occasionally or is “objectively justified” ( Section 20 (3) GWB). Strictly speaking, it is not just the sale but an offer below cost price that is prohibited.

The Bundeskartellamt has developed principles of interpretation for this. On October 25, 2007, in a decision against Netto Marken-Discount, it specified that an offer is no longer “only occasionally” if it is submitted in more than three calendar weeks within six months. It doesn't have to be the same item every time.

Since the law to combat price abuse in the field of energy supply and the food trade came into force on December 22nd, 2007 , even the occasional sale of food below cost has been prohibited. It was also made clear that in the case of foodstuffs, only threatened spoilage or threatened "unsaleability" (for example for seasonal items) as well as "comparable serious cases" represent an objective justification. Furthermore, it is explicitly excluded that they are given to charitable organizations (such as food banks ). These changes are limited to the end of 2012.

Whether the regulations make sense is controversial. In the opinion of the Federal Cartel Office, the aim of protecting small and medium-sized retail companies from “cut-throat competition from powerful large companies ” will not be achieved because the large grocery retailers, due to their considerable buying power, could already offer significantly cheaper than the small and medium-sized companies at cost prices.

However, with the ban on the occasional sale of groceries below the cost price, the federal government also wanted to "send out a signal for a high safety standard for groceries and counteract low-price strategies". In the public debate, the general appreciation of food has played a greater role than the reasons for competition law . The farmers' associations in particular not only value their performance at reasonably high producer prices, but also appropriate store prices and defend themselves against the “squandering” of food.

The purchase price is calculated by the Federal Cartel Office as the supplier's list price minus all “price-effective conditions”. These do not have to be related to the specific goods, but in order to rule out manipulation, they are only taken into account proportionally to the total sales with the supplier, even if it is an explicit promotion of a specific product, a limited sales campaign or an individual sales channel. In addition, they must be “to be expected with a sufficient degree of probability at the time of pricing”. The purchase price also includes the procurement costs directly attributable to the delivery of the goods, but not the proportionate procurement overheads. The VAT will be deducted from the calculation.

Advertising subsidies: The Rossmann case

The practice of the Federal Cartel Office of not looking at advertising subsidies in relation to the product, but rather allocating them to all of the supplier's goods, led to a fine on the drugstore chain Rossmann in 2007 . At the time, the Cartel Office determined that in 2005 Rossmann had prohibited regular sales of 55 products below cost price.

In Rossmann's view, advertising subsidies are targeted support for the manufacturer for advertised items and should therefore not be allocated to other products of the manufacturer. Rossmann never advertises its product Hansaplast at the manufacturer Beiersdorf , but uses the subsidies for its Nivea brand , which means that their purchase prices are lower than those calculated by the Federal Cartel Office. The Bundeskartellamt, on the other hand, is of the opinion that advertising subsidies should only be taken into account proportionally to the total turnover with the manufacturer, "so that inappropriate manipulation of purchase prices can be excluded".

The Monopolies Commission , which " regards the setting of sub- cost prices within the framework of mixed calculation [...] as a regular parameter in competitive events, as long as the sub-cost price is not used as an instrument of a competition-restricting predatory strategy, does not consider a clear and economically correct allocation [of advertising subsidies] to be possible". This also shows "that a consistent implementation of the prohibition of prices below the cost of the sale is not possible".

The 2nd Cartel Senate of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court acquitted Rossmann and its owner on November 12, 2009 of the charge of unreasonable hindrance to other companies. A legal appeal to the Federal Court of Justice was possible and has been used by the Public Prosecutor's Office. On November 9, 2010, the Federal Court of Justice dismissed the appeal without giving reasons.

literature

• Matthias Wackerbeck: Sales below cost price. Solved and unsolved problems of section 20 (4) sentence 2 GWB in competition . In: Competition in Law and Practice 52, 2006, ISSN  0508-6205 , pp. 991–998.

Web links

Wiktionary: cost price  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jürgen Reim, Income Statement - Increasing Value through Value Creation , 2015, p. 148
2. ↑ Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden (ed.), Compact Lexicon Marketingpraxis , 2013, p. 326
3. ↑ Wilhelm Kalveram, Economic calculations , 1968, p. 327
4. ↑ Carl-Christian Freidank / Patrick Velte, Accounting and Accounting Policy , 2013, p. 185
5. ↑ Hergen Scheck / Birgitt Scheck, Wirtschaftliches Grundwissen , 2007, p. 161
6. ↑ BGH, GRUR 1990, 371 , 380
7. ^ BGH, decision of November 12, 2002, Az .: KVR 5/02 = BGHZ 152, 361
8. ↑ BGH GRUR 1979, 321 , 323 - sale below cost price I.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Announcement on the application of Section 20 Paragraph 4 Clause 2 GWB ( Memento of the original dated April 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 112 kB), Federal Cartel Office, August 4, 2003  
10. ↑ Clarification on the prohibition of sales below cost price ( Memento of the original from February 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Press release of the Federal Cartel Office of October 30, 2007)  
11. ↑ Decision B9 - 77/07 of the Federal Cartel Office (PDF; 140 kB) of October 25, 2007
12. ↑ Federal Law Gazette I p. 2966
13. ↑ ^{a b} see justification in the draft law of the federal government on the law to combat price abuse in the field of energy supply and the food trade (PDF; 412 kB)
14. ↑ Bundestag printed paper 16/7156 (PDF; 137 kB), recommendation for a resolution and report on the law to combat price abuse in the field of energy supply and the food trade
15. ↑ Press release of the German Farmers' Association of September 27, 2007 ( Memento of the original of March 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ Press release ( Memento of the original dated November 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Federal Cartel Office of February 8, 2007  
17. ↑ Cartel Office argues hostile to consumers ( memento of the original of July 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release from Rossmann dated April 26, 2007 
18. ↑ Less state, more competition ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 444 kB), 17th main report of the Monopolies Commission, press version of July 9, 2008 
19. ↑ Rossmann was right  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release from Rossmann dated November 12, 2009  
20. ↑ No antitrust violation by Drogerie Rossmann GmbH - acquittal ( memento of the original dated November 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court of November 12, 2009 
21. ^ Appeal filed against Rossmann acquittal , Zeit online from November 17, 2009
22. ↑ Rossmann acquittal is final ( memento of the original from July 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release from Rossmann dated November 12, 2010 

Please note the information on legal issues!