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ACM: temporary surcharge on intercontinental parcel tariffs of postal operator PostNL falls within statutory rules

Dutch postal operator PostNL will temporarily add a surcharge to the tariffs for parcels that are shipped by air from the Netherlands to destinations outside Europe. PostNL has informed the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) of its plans. As the number of international flights has decreased due to the measures taken in connection with the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, shipping costs for parcels to intercontinental destinations have increased. In order to cover these costs, PostNL has introduced a temporary surcharge of, on average, almost four euros per kilo on the shipping costs for parcels with destinations outside Europe.

The tariffs for worldwide shipping are part of the basic set of postal services (the Universal Service Obligation or USO) that PostNL carries out, and to which certain statutory rules apply, which ACM enforces. ACM expects that the surcharge falls within the headroom that PostNL has for 2020 under the statutory rules governing the USO, but will only check this afterwards.