German ministry publishes key points on major revision of the Postal Act
12 August 19
Dieter Kronegger
The ministry will prepare a major revision of the Postal Act of 1997, in particular to strengthen consumer rights and to increase competition in the letter market.
ERGP recommends no additional access regulation for the parcel market
24 July 19
Virginie Alloo
Parcel service providers in Europe do not seek further regulatory intervention on access to the delivery infrastructures of postal universal service providers. This is one of the main findings of a report by the ERGP on the development of postal networks and access regarding the parcel market, published in June 2019.
ERGP has adopted a series of recommendations for a fundamental "greenfield" review of the postal regulatory framework
22 July 19
Virginie Alloo
The European regulators group for postal services (ERGP) calls upon the Commission to adopt a fundamental "greenfield" approach to review the Postal Services Directive. The ERGP recommends taking account of both the market perspective and users needs, asking the Commission to consider whether there is still a specific postal market and to take account of users’ rights and interests in relation to e-commerce and new digital services.
Posti to increase the number of partner-operated service points for cost reduction and end user convenience
28 June 19
Armen Ghalumyan
Finnish postal universal service provider Posti will increase the number of service points operated by external partners to 2,800 during 2019-20, while closing 18 of its own outlets. The changes will generate cost savings as well as benefitting end users by bringing the retail postal network closer to them. The postal operator will also provide its customers with delivery choice for parcels, with most Finns likely to opt for delivery to parcel lockers.
ComReg sets out USP designation procedures
28 June 19
Peter Dunn
On 26 June 2019, ComReg, the Irish postal regulator, set out the procedures that it will follow when it reviews the designation of a universal service provider (USP). ComReg is likely to set a duration of between two and seven years for any future designation period, which is at the lower end of USP designation periods in many European countries.
German regulator approves significant increase of letter prices
24 June 19
Dieter Kronegger
The regulated letter prices of Deutsche Post will increase by 10.63% on average on 1 July 2019. The German regulator had to approve a stronger price increase than originally planned because the German federal government amended the secondary legislation on postal price control.