Spotlight

Fees and prices

Fees

The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) charges fees for services in the following areas. You can obtain information on fees for these services from the contacts within the responsible department. These can be found either on this website under the respective topic or for many shipping topics via the Service portal German Flag. The links there lead directly to the respective information and contacts.

  • Flag law,
  • Certificates, courses, exams (seafarers),
  • Tonnage measurement,
  • Nautical systems and devices (testing and/or approval),
  • Ballast water management systems (approval),
  • Continental shelf/Exclusive Economic Zone (authorisation, amendment of an authorisation, prohibition of activities),
  • Liability certificates,
  • Maritime security,
  • Market surveillance,
  • Ship-related environmental law.

Fees are charged based on the BSH-Gebührenverordnung (BSHGebV – the Ordinance on the fees charged by the BSH is only available in German). Services subject to charges and the corresponding fees are set out in the Annex (to § 2 (1)) to the BSH-Gebührenverordnung, the List of fees. Some fees are based on the size of the ship or the expenditure of time (see BSHGebV § 3). In exceptional cases, the previously valid BSH-Kostenverordnung shall apply (see BSHGebV § 4).

In addition to fees for the testing of nautical systems and devices, the List of fees contains equipment categories. The equipment categories A to F correspond to different ranges of fees. The Geräteliste (device list – only available in German) shows you which devices are assigned to which equipment category.

Prices

The prices for nautical charts and books can be found in the Produktkatalog (product catalogue – only available in German). Please also note the Allgemeinen Vertragsbedingungen für die Abgabe von Druckerzeugnissen (General terms and conditions for the supply of printed products – only available in German). Prices include VAT and are non-negotiable. For cross-border sales within the European Economic Area, they are negotiable recommended prices.

The prices for the use of digital data made available by the BSH are based on the current Entgeltverzeichnis für digitale Daten (List of fees for digital data – only available in German). Please also note the General Terms and Conditions for the supply of digital data by the BSH. General Terms and Conditions.

The BSH reserves the right to amend prices for new or rapidly changing products.