Application of EU Competition Law in the Postal Sector Overview of Recent Cases

Abstract

With the implementation of the Third Postal Directive, the European Union took an essential step towards full market opening. According to the Directive, all Member States must fully liberalize their postal markets by the end of 2011 or 2012, at the latest. Having thus created scope for competition through regulatory reform, the European Union needs to ensure that competition in the open postal markets can actually develop for the benefit of citizens and businesses. This is achieved through the enforcement of EU competition law rules. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the application of EU Competition law rules to the postal sector, with references to judgments and decisions adopted in 2012 and 2013. It is structured as follows. Section 2 discusses judgments of the EU and EFTA Courts which broke new ground with respect to substantial and procedural competition law. Section 3 analyzes the decisional practice of the European Commission (Commission) in cases involving incumbent postal operators. Section 4 concludes.