PostNL must continue to offer access for 24-hour bulk mail
Business senders continue to have options
Businesses and organizations continue to be able to choose from multiple postal operators for their 24-hour bulk mail. That is because PostNL must continue to offer other postal operators access to its sorting and delivery network. As a result, regional postal operators, too, will be able to continue to offer nationwide delivery of 24-hour bulk mail.
This has been laid down in the market analysis decision regarding 24-hour business mail. With this decision, access to PostNL’s network for 24-hour bulk mail delivery has been safeguarded from August 1 onwards as well. On that day, Section 9 of the Dutch Postal Act, which regulates this access, will expire.
Why is PostNL required to grant access?
Some postal operators deliver 24-hour mail in parts of the country. In other parts, they do not have any mail carriers.
PostNL is required to make an offer to other postal operators to deliver this mail in those areas. This will ensure that senders of business mail continue to be able to choose from different postal operators. That will lead to better service at lower prices. Postal operators are allowed to offer up to 70 percent of their mail to PostNL. This will ensure that so-called consolidators or administrative resellers, who wish to benefit from volume discounts, cannot enter the market.
ACM sets out conditions that PostNL may apply
In its market analysis decision, ACM sets out what conditions PostNL may apply for delivering this mail. These include, among other conditions, the times by which other postal operators should deliver their mail to PostNL, and the tariffs that PostNL is allowed to charge them. The tariffs have been set in such a way that PostNL is not only able to recoup its costs, but is also able to earn a reasonable return. When setting these tariffs, ACM expressly takes into account the decreasing mail volumes.
What had happened prior to this decision?
On several occasions, ACM asked market participants for comments on the analysis and the proposed obligations. Following those comments, the decision has been modified on a number of points, so that it deals with the identified competition issues in an even more targeted way.