Electronic Price Tags in Hospitality and the PBV

Why hospitality has its own pitfalls

For restaurants, the same PBV logic applies in principle as in retail: guests must be told the price actually payable. In practice, however, several things differ noticeably from a shop — daily-changing lunch menus, dishes selling out on short notice, multilingual menus for international guests, and different prices between lunch and dinner service are situations that practically never occur on a retailer's shelf but are everyday business in a kitchen. Anyone introducing a digital price tag or table display for a restaurant, café, or hotel should know these hospitality-specific situations. The following sections go beyond the general PBV principles and address concretely the scenarios that regularly cause uncertainty in hospitality — and show where a digital implementation actually makes a practical difference.

Final price and VAT on the menu

What must be stated is the price actually payable in francs, including VAT and all non-optional surcharges. A separate note saying "incl. VAT" is not mandatory — the tax simply needs to already be included in the stated amount; the note itself can appear once at the end of the menu or be omitted entirely. For ready-to-drink beverages such as cold milk, fruit and vegetable juices, mineral water, soft drinks, wine, beer, and spirits, it must additionally be recognizable what quantity the price refers to — for a glass of wine, for example, 1 dl or 2 dl. For hot drinks and cocktails, this quantity requirement doesn't apply. For a digital menu display, this means: quantity and price must appear on the same line or immediately next to each other, so the attribution is as unambiguous as on a printed menu.

Does the menu have to be posted outside?

No. Hospitality businesses aren't required to post their prices or menu outside. The actual obligation concerns the interior: clearly legible food and drink price lists must be available inside in sufficient number and easily accessible to guests, or brought to them without being asked — at the table, for example. Businesses with a limited offering may instead post it in one or more clearly visible spots inside the premises, without every guest receiving their own copy. For digital implementations, two equally valid options arise: a table display per seat with the full menu, or a central display at the counter or entrance, provided it's clearly legible from every seat. An outdoor display remains a voluntary measure to attract guests, but doesn't replace the indoor display.

Daily-changing lunch menus and daily specials

Businesses with a daily-changing lunch menu face an organizational challenge: dish, price, or both change from one day to the next, often shortly before service begins. The PBV principle itself is unaffected — what governs is always what's actually charged at the time of ordering, and the posted or served menu must reflect that price correctly. With a printed daily menu, a late change usually means extra work: reprint, laminate, replace — with the risk that an outdated price gets overlooked in the rush. A digital display fed from menu planning or the till system can handle this change automatically: the lunch menu appears in the morning with its price and is automatically replaced by the regular menu after service ends, with no manual intervention needed.

Sold-out dishes: a practical problem, not a PBV exception

The PBV doesn't explicitly address sold-out dishes, but the consequence can be derived from its basic principle: a price for a dish that's actually no longer available can create a false expectation for guests and is in any case sensitive under the more general law against unfair competition, because it may amount to a misleading statement about availability. In practice this means: if a daily special sells out during service, it should either disappear from the menu or be clearly marked as no longer available — simply leaving the name and price standing with no notice is not advisable. This is where digital menus show an advantage over paper or a chalkboard: a sold-out dish can be hidden or marked centrally within seconds, while the same change on a laminated menu often only happens with the next print run.

Multilingual menus for international guests

The PBV doesn't prescribe a particular language for hospitality; what matters is that the price is clearly recognizable and unambiguously attributable for guests on site. In tourist-oriented businesses with multilingual menus — German, French, English, say — every language version must therefore ensure that dish and price unambiguously belong together, regardless of which language version a guest happens to be looking at. With printed multilingual menus, it's not uncommon in practice for a price change to be applied in one language version but forgotten in another, for example because the menus are maintained separately. A digital display that draws all language versions from the same central price source and only switches the text layer structurally rules out this source of error: when a price changes, it changes simultaneously in every language offered.

Different prices for lunch and dinner service

Many restaurants charge a different price for the same or a similar dish at lunch than in the evening — a reduced lunch menu versus the regular evening menu with the same main course, for example. That's fundamentally permissible, as long as it's clear at all times which price currently applies and is actually charged. It becomes problematic when both prices remain visible at the same time — because the lunch menu wasn't cleared away in the afternoon, say, and the new evening menu is displayed alongside the reduced-price item without it being clear to the guest which one currently applies. With a digital implementation, this switch can be automated on a schedule, so no two different prices for the same item are ever visible at the same time. Businesses should consciously set this switchover time during setup, rather than leaving it to the chance of a manual menu change.

The 2021 relaxation for advertising material — and why it doesn't apply at the table

Since 1 July 2021, advertising materials may reference a digital source for certain mandatory disclosures, provided the reference is clearly legible or audible and the information at the source is immediately accessible and clearly legible — a relaxation that goes back to the Lombardi motion. It expressly concerns advertising outside the point of sale, flyers or ads, say. At the point of sale itself, and in a restaurant that includes the table or the counter, it does not apply: the price actually payable must still be shown there directly and in full. A QR code that, instead of a price, points to a website with the menu is therefore not sufficient for the actual table menu — but it can serve as an additional, voluntary offering alongside a complete, directly legible price display on the table display itself.

Frequently asked questions

Must "incl. VAT" appear on the menu?

No, a separate note isn't mandatory. VAT simply needs to already be included in the stated price; the note can appear once at the end of the menu or be omitted entirely.

Must a restaurant post its prices outside the premises?

No. There's no obligation to post outside. What's required is a clearly legible, correct price list inside the business that's accessible to guests or brought to them without being asked.

What applies if a daily special sells out mid-service?

The PBV has no explicit rule on this, but the basic principle demands clarity: a dish with no availability shouldn't remain listed with a price without being marked as sold out, since that could otherwise be considered misleading.

May lunch and dinner prices differ for the same dish?

Yes, that's permitted. What matters is that it's clear at all times which of the two prices currently applies, and that both aren't visible at the same time.

Is a QR code at the table enough instead of a direct price display?

No. The option, in effect since 2021, to reference a digital source for mandatory disclosures applies only to advertising outside the point of sale. At the table itself, the actual price must still be shown directly.

Sources

• SECO — FAQ on Price Disclosure ↗
• Fedlex — SR 942.211 Price Indication Ordinance (PBV) ↗
• ZHAW — Mandatory disclosures in advertising to be simplified (SECO press release, 19 May 2021) ↗