postal regulation

Correos, the Spanish postal universal service provider (USP) failed to meet its quality transit times for letter and parcel delivery in 2017. CNMC, the national regulator, published its annual report on quality indicators in the universal postal service. CNMC demanded that Correos should immediately act to ensure compliance with the delivery standards, especially for parcels up to 20kg.

The French regulator, ARCEP, has approved the increase proposed by La Poste for the level of tariffs for universal services in 2019. La Poste proposed that prices for universal services will increase on average by 5%, which is the annual rate of increase allowed by ARCEP.

The Italian regulator, AGCOM, fined Amazon a total of €300,000 for offering postal services without proper authorisation.

Ofcom is consulting until 4 October 2018 on its proposals to raise the level of the price cap for second class standard letters by 5%. The level of the price cap for large letters and parcels up to 2kg will not change.

The Irish regulator is consulting on whether to reduce the scope of the postal universal service. ComReg proposes to remove bulk mail services and delivery services for parcels weighing more than 10kg from the universal service obligation, taking account of market changes since 2012.

The European Commission found that government compensation paid to Correos, the Spanish national postal operator, was incompatible with the EU state aid rules. The Commission ordered Spain to recover state aid of about €167m. The payments related mainly to the provision of universal postal services during 2004-2010.