Out of 21 studied European countries, Ireland is the only one where postal codes (a series of numbers and/or letters used to identify postal addresses) are managed by a private non-postal entity licensed under a contract with the government. In Denmark, managing postal codes is the responsibility of the national regulatory authority (NRA), whereas in all other countries the postal universal service providers are responsible for doing so.

In more than half of the studied countries, the management of postal codes is either unregulated or managed under a specific state contract or licence. The remaining countries have set out explicitly in their laws or regulations who should manage the postal code system.

Supervision over the management of postal codes is implemented in only eight countries where the supervisory body is either the NRA, the government or both. Supervision typically concerns the approval of access terms and potential changes to postal codes. In some countries, supervision also aims to ensure compliance with other requirements or features, such as data accuracy and access pricing.

These are a few of the findings of Cullen International’s new research on the management and supervision of postal codes.

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