According to article 6 of the Cross-Border Parcel Regulation (CBPR) and the European Commission’s guidelines to NRAs on the transparency and assessment of cross-border parcel tariffs, NRAs should each year assess whether USPs’ cross-border single piece tariffs are “unreasonably high”. However, the definition of what constitutes an unreasonably high tariff is not defined specifically and is thus open to the interpretation of the NRAs.

Cullen International’s new benchmark shows that levels of compliance with the requirements of article 6 of the Cross-border parcels regulation have been patchy.

Many NRAs have failed to submit their assessments to the Commission by the required deadline, with some failing to make a submission at all.

Where NRAs did submit their assessments, there have been few findings of unreasonably high cross-border tariffs, with NRAs in only two countries finding unreasonably high tariffs in 2019 and only three in 2020.

To access the full benchmark, please click on “Access the full content” - or on “Request Access”, in case you are not subscribed to our Postal service.