Postal Services: Survey of Competition Law Developments

Abstract

This article summarises the most significant competition law development in the postal services sector in the last 12 months, at EU level (II.–IV.) and at national level in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK (V.).1 The last 12 months have seen a European Commission merger control decision in the parcel delivery services sector in the Fedex/TNT Express case (II.) and a judgement of the Court of Justice of the EU (‘CJEU’) upholding the European General Court judgement in the Slovenská Pošta2 case (III.). In the State aid area, the European General Court has allowed an appeal by Deutsche Post against the 2012 decision of the Commission finding that the public financing of pensions constituted unlawful State aid, and the Commission has approved Italian State aid funding for Poste Italiane's universal service obligation (IV.). In January 2016, the European Commission approved the acquisition of TNT Express by Fedex following a phase 2 investigation.3 TNT Express and Fedex are two of the four ‘integrators’ operating in the small package delivery sector in the EU. Integrators are delivery service companies that control a comprehensive air and road delivery network for purposes of providing a range of reliable delivery services. The other integrators are DHL (owned by Deutsche Post) and UPS (of the USA). In 2013, the European Commission prohibited the acquisition of TNT Express by UPS because it would have resulted in a substantial lessening of competition in the EU, with a reduction of competitors from three to two in some EEA countries, because Fedex is not active in all EU member states.4 At this stage, the full decision of the Commission has not yet been published, but the main reason was explained in a Commission press release.5