Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, today imposed a financial penalty of £1 million on Royal Mail for failing to take adequate steps to ensure it did not gain an unfair commercial advantage over its competitors in the fast-growing ‘access to the last mile’ market.
The penalty has been reduced from the £2.16 million originally proposed, following Postcomm’s consideration of representations from Royal Mail and other interested parties. The original penalty was proposed in a report published on 17 February this year. Postcomm published its proposal to vary the penalty to £1 million on 12 July.
Royal Mail currently has more than 96% of the postal market and, since April 2004, has been charging some competitors a fee for its postmen and postwomen to deliver their mail. Royal Mail currently delivers more than a billion of these items each year.
Postcomm began investigating these so-called downstream access arrangements last year after three of Royal Mail’s competitors – Express Ltd, TNT Mail UK Ltd and UK Mail Ltd – complained about various aspects of Royal Mail’s competitive behaviour.
Postcomm concluded that Royal Mail did not have adequate measures within its wholesale and retail divisions to prevent it obtaining an unfair advantage over its competitors.
Notes for editors
Full list of related documents, including today's Notice of Imposition of Financial Penalty (pdf, 403KB).
On 17 February 2006, Postcomm published a Notice proposing a financial penalty of £2.16 million on Royal Mail for failing to take adequate steps to ensure it did not gain an unfair commercial advantage over its competitors in the fast-growing ‘access to the last mile’ market. The full findings of that investigation were published in “A Complaint about Royal Mail’s offer of Zonal Downstream Access: Report and Decision of the Postal Services Commission”.
After taking account of representations by Royal Mail and other respondents, Postcomm decided to reduce the penalty to £1 million. That decision was published in a report, “A Complaint about Royal Mail’s Offer of Zonal Downstream Access: Second Report and Decision of the Postal Services Commission”, which can be found in the “Anti-Competitive Behaviour” section of the Postcomm website.
More information on Postcomm's work to prevent anti-competitive behaviour
