The Danish Marketing Practices Act (Markedsføringsloven) sets out the overall requirements for a property advert.
The Act, formally Act no. 426 of 3 May 2017 as amended, implements the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive in Danish law. It applies to all businesses, from sole traders to listed companies. So if you sell a home as part of a business activity, the advert is covered.
Among other things, the Marketing Practices Act contains rules on good marketing practice, telephone sales, covert advertising and marketing on social media. A property advert falls under the Act as commercial communication.
Marketing is a broad concept. It covers adverts, sales promotion methods, press releases, sponsored content, e-mail newsletters, push notifications, phone calls and product descriptions on your own website. Advertising is always paid for and time-limited, whereas promotion can be free coverage such as press releases or reviews. Both must comply with the Danish Marketing Practices Act.
Here we go through the rules that matter most for property adverts: good marketing practice, price information, energy labels and documentation.
Good marketing practice in property adverts
Good marketing practice is the overall standard the Marketing Practices Act measures your advert against. Three provisions in particular shape how you put together a property advert.
Section 1 is the Act’s general clause. It states that a trader must not act contrary to good marketing practice. The provision applies whether or not a specific practice is described elsewhere in the Act. For your advert, this means it is not enough to avoid the clear prohibitions. Your approach must also stand up to a broader assessment of what is reasonable towards the recipient.
Section 3 spells out what good marketing practice involves. It states that a trader must observe good marketing practice with regard to consumers, traders and the interests of society at large. When you describe a home, the information must be accurate for the private buyer and must not give a distorted picture of the market or of other people’s terms.
Section 6 requires commercial communication to be identifiable as advertising. A property advert must therefore clearly come across as an advertisement, not as editorial content. Readers must be able to see straight away that it is marketing for a home, not a neutral article, a news report or an editorial feature. If you disguise the nature of the advert, the requirement is not met, even if the property details themselves are correct.
Section 6 also contains a rule on price. Material price information must not be omitted or made unclear in marketing. For a property advert, this means that the prices that matter to the buyer’s decision must be stated clearly and prominently. For example, information must not be placed, worded or designed in a way that makes it hard to find or understand.
Read together, the three provisions cover the tone, transparency and content of your advert. Good marketing practice forms the framework for the other rules on price information, energy labels and documentation.
Price marking and prior prices in property adverts
If you advertise a reduced price, there is a fixed requirement for the prior price you show. The prior price must be the lowest price the product has been offered at in a period of at least 30 days before the price reduction.
A concrete example shows why the rule exists. A product is sold for 999 kr. for 28 days, raised to 1.999 kr. for 3 days and then advertised as “Was 1.999 kr. – now 1.299 kr.”. Here the lawful prior price is 999 kr., so the discount is fictitious. What makes it misleading is that the high price only applied for three days, while the low price was the real one for almost a month. The reader is presented with a saving that does not exist.
The prior price must be the lowest price the business has charged for the product in a period of at least 30 days before the reduction. The information must also be correct, clear and verifiable across channels. This means the same price message must be traceable and documented, whether it appears on a website, in an advert or in other digital channels.
If a product is sold at a reduced price for a longer continuous period, the reduced price becomes its normal price. When that happens, the reduced price can no longer be marketed as an offer. Correct price marking in a property advert therefore depends on the prior price shown reflecting an actual, documented price history.
Energy label requirements in the property advert
The energy label must always be visible when you advertise in commercial media. This applies whether the building or building unit is being sold, let or transferred. The advert must show the rating stated in the energy labelling report, that is, on the scale from A to G.
The requirement applies to year-round homes and to holiday homes over 60 m². If the home is smaller than that, it is not covered. There is also an exception for temporary lettings where each letting lasts no more than four weeks. That kind of short-term letting is exempt from the energy labelling requirement, whatever the size of the home.
An energy label is valid for 10 years. If the building is sold several times within that period, the same label can be used again. So you do not need to have a new label prepared if a valid one already exists for the property.
When you sell through an estate agent, there is a set order you must follow. You must give the agent a valid energy label before the building is put up for sale. In other words, the label must be ready by the time the property is advertised, not only when the purchase agreement is due to be signed.
You must also make sure the buyer receives the energy label. This must happen before the purchase agreement is entered into, so the buyer has the information in hand before signing. Taken together, the requirements for property adverts mean that the energy label must be in place, visible in the advert and passed on to the buyer at the right time.
Misleading property adverts and documentation requirements
Forbrugerombudsmanden (the Danish Consumer Ombudsman) is the independent supervisory authority that oversees compliance with the Marketing Practices Act. The institution was set up in 1975, and the ombudsman is appointed by Erhvervs- og Vækstministeriet (the Ministry of Business and Growth). The current Consumer Ombudsman is Torben Jensen, who took office on 1 January 2024. So it is this authority that assesses whether a property advert complies with the rules, and that can refer cases to the police.
Documentation is crucial to avoiding misleading property adverts. Every statement in the advert must be backed up by facts. This applies whether the statement is about price, condition, location or something else entirely. Some types of claim need particular attention:
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A discount such as “Save X%” must be calculated from the correct prior price.
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A “limited offer” must genuinely apply only for the advertised period.
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Claims such as “recommended by experts” must have named sources.
The rules for property adverts also cover types of offer that can be misleading. “Yes please” add-on offers can be misleading and unlawful if the consumer could have got the product at the same price without the offer. Forbrugerombudsmanden has reported Apuls ApS to the police for advertising fake offers, which shows that the authority pursues this type of case in practice.
Comparative advertising must be based on objective, verifiable data. So you cannot present one home as better than another without being able to back up the comparison. Green claims must be specific and documented, so a reference to, for example, energy improvements or sustainable materials requires you to be able to point to what the claim is based on.
Hidden subscriptions or commitments must be clearly highlighted in the advert. Information of that kind must not be buried in a footnote or worded so that it is hard to spot. The rules are thus built on the principle that what the buyer reads can be traced back to actual facts, and that material terms stand out clearly.
Checklist and responsibility for a lawful property advert
Before the property advert is published, there are four points you should check:
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A valid energy label is in place and visible in the advert.
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The prior price is based on the 30-day lowest-price rule.
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Every claim in the advert can be documented.
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The advert is clearly marked as advertising.
These points cover the requirements described above, and they must be met at the time of advertising, not only when the purchase agreement is due to be signed.
Businesses should put a system in place for managing price changes. This involves a central price log with history, fixed cut-offs for campaign length and an approval flow for prior prices. With that structure in place, it is possible to check offer prices against the 30-day lowest-price rule and to document the price history that the price marking rules are based on.
Forbrugerombudsmanden offers guidance and materials for both businesses and consumers on how marketing should be designed. The materials can be used actively when the advert is being prepared, so the requirements for price information, energy labels and documentation are built in from the start.
Responsibility for making sure a property advert complies with the Marketing Practices Act lies with the seller. You should therefore either go through the rules yourself or work with your estate agent to make sure the advert meets the requirements. This reduces the risk of fines and orders under section 37.
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