Safeguarding Basic Needs in Light of a Full Deregulation: An Article on the Impending Liberalization of the Public Postal Monopolies in Switzerland and the EU

Abstract

Postal markets have shown surprising resistance against the general trend towards liberalization of public infrastructure. But lately in the US, the EU and Switzerland this market characterized by legal monopolies and market barriers has slowly begun to change and with that the legal frameworks in these areas. In March 2008 the Swiss Federal Council submitted two legal consultation drafts, which would gradually liberalize the Swiss postal market completely. It draws from current EU regulations which under the changing circumstances are no longer very progressive.Postal services do not generally belong to the core responsibilities which the state has to render itself. However, in many ways the state does influence postal services, i.e. by obliging certain companies to provide universal postal services. The proposed regulation aims at increasing the quantity and quality of the provided services.The consultation draft at hand continues to allow governmental regulation without taking any systematic differences between future public and private postal companies into account. Also, the determining factors of information distribution and the postal market itself have changed and thus, a continued governmental intervention in these markets would require greater justification. Even if one can argue that the governmental influence of the postal market is to secure the public’s basic needs, the proposed postal reform is excessive and impedes innovation. Therefore, this paper aims at a critical discussion of the current and proposed deregulation of the postal market under the above aspects and demonstrates possible leeway while comparing US, EU and Swiss law in order to gain a greater perspective on the current developments.