Circumstances – that you did not count on – can lead to you as an entrepreneur being confronted with higher costs that exceed the agreed price agreement that you have made. As an entrepreneur, these sudden cost increases can have various legal consequences, depending on the specific circumstances and the agreements that you have made with your contractual partner. How do you deal with this?
The overarching question is whether agreements have been made between the parties to be able to absorb the price increases in costs to some extent. Often, no thought is given to including provisions in the agreement that make it possible to adjust agreed prices or the agreement does not offer any room for negotiation to make new price agreements. If no agreements have been made, it is not possible to adjust the prices unilaterally. The starting point is that the price increases generally belong to the entrepreneurial risk of the entrepreneur.
Implementing a price increase – without the consent of your contracting party – is often difficult for the other party. If the parties cannot reach an agreement, the only option left is to go to court. In that case, unforeseen circumstances are often invoked to enforce the price increase. In this case, unforeseen circumstances refer to a circumstance that occurs after the parties have concluded the agreement and which are not included in the agreement but which do have an impact on the contractual relationship between the parties.
Even if the agreement states that interim increases in costs will lead to an increase in the agreed prices/fees, an entrepreneur (often a contractor) must take into account the manner in which the agreement has been communicated to his or her contracting party. Especially if it concerns a private contracting party, an increased duty to provide information and to warn may exist for the entrepreneur. The above must be taken into account especially if the price increase provision is included in the entrepreneur's General Terms and Conditions. The applicability of the General Terms and Conditions is strongly dependent on the manner in which the conditions have been made known to the contracting party.
Interim price increases can therefore lead to disputes with customers, suppliers or other business partners, because often no agreements are made. Parties will then often have to enter into discussions with each other to see whether there is room to bear the price increases and the financial consequences thereof together. If the parties do not reach an agreement on the dispute that has arisen, it is advisable to seek legal advice. In this respect, it is a good idea to consider whether legal proceedings or reaching an amicable settlement is considered advisable. In this context, the agreements already made by the parties and the intention of the overall contractual relationship will play a major role.
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