BePost in the Competition Council’s sights

The College of Competition Prosecutors of the Belgian Competition Council filed on 7 April 2011 its report concluding that bpost abuses its dominant position in the market of postal intermediaries.

In October 2009, we lodged a complaint on behalf of our client Link2Biz International before the Competition Council against bpost, formerly De Post/La Poste, for abuse of dominant position in the form of discriminatory tariffs.

Link2Biz International had noticed that the tariffs offered for the postal services for its mail handling activities were much higher than the tariffs applied by bpost to its own direct customers for the same services. The mail handling services consist essentially of the preparation of mail (putting mail into envelopes, sorting letters by postal code) for large companies.

Other intermediaries, such as Spring and Publimail, also lodged such a complaint before the Belgian Competition Council for the same alleged abuses.

On 7 April 2011, the College of Competition Prosecutors filed a reasoned report with the Competition Council concluding to the existence of such abuses committed by bpost. Such abuses are forbidden by Article 3 of the Act on the Protection of Economic Competition (APEC), consolidated on 15 September 2006, and by Article 102 of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union.

The report establishes the existence of abuses of dominant position denounced in the complaints for the period 2003 until now. It concerns essentially the imposition of discriminatory conditions between the direct customers of bpost and the mail handlers, such as Link2Biz International, Spring and Publimail, as well as between the mail handlers themselves. According to the College of Competition Prosecutors, bpost also committed illegal practices relating to the refusal to sell, and is responsible for a reinforcement of the barriers to access and expansion as regards mail handling companies, arising from the lack of transparency in relation to their commercial partners.

Those findings end the in-depth inquiry of the College of Competition Prosecutors on the commercial services offered by bpost to all the actors in the market.

The case is now transferred to the Competition Council which will examine the position of all the parties at stake, including the legal defence of bpost. The decision of the Competition Council will probably be adopted in the course of next year.

In 2005, De Post/La Poste had already committed itself towards the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications to ending the differentiation of tariffs between intermediaries and direct customers. In its opinion published on 27 May 2005, the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications had welcomed such a commitment, emphasizing the obligations of transparency and non-discrimination which lay with the Belgian postal company.

In the current case, the Competition Council may impose a fine of up to 10% of bpost's turnover if the infringements are established.