Postal Services: Survey of Competition Law Developments

Abstract

The Court of Justice of the EU (‘CJEU’) has issued a significant judgment regarding grants of downstream access to the postal network of an incumbent operator in the bpost case, in which it concludes that differential treatment as between direct customers and consolidators regarding quantity discounts is not inconsistent with the non-discrimination requirement under Article 12 of the Postal Directive. The CJEU has also given a judgment under Article 102 TFEU concerning volume rebates given by an incumbent postal operator in a second case concerning Post Danmark. The European General Court has upheld a European Commission decision that certain Slovak legislative changes involved a re-monopolisation of hybrid mail and infringed Article 106(1) in conjunction with Article 102 TFEU. In the State aid area, the CJEU has ruled that Germany failed to recover State aid from Deutsche Post, with regard to business-to-business parcel services, while, in the case of Polish Post, the European Commission has approved the use of a compensation fund to finance the provision of a universal postal service. As regards the national competition authorities, in Germany the German Federal Cartel Office has found an abuse of dominant position by Deutsche Post concerning its tariffs for bulk mail customers by means of a margin squeeze, and in the UK Ofcom has issued a Statement of Objections in relation to Royal Mail's wholesale services for downstream access to its postal network.