Press Release 23/2017

 

 

On 13 February 2015, the Autoridade da Concorrência (AdC) opened proceedings against CTT – Correios de Portugal, S.A. – Sociedade Aberta (CTT) for alleged infringements of competition rules and issued a Statement of Objections on 12 August 2016.

 

The investigation carried out by the AdC revealed the existence of a number of competition concerns regarding the access to CTT’s standard mail delivery network by competing postal operators.

 

Considering that competing postal operators need access to CTT’s standard mail delivery network in order to provide standard mail services to business customers, the AdC considered, on a preliminary basis, that CTT’s behaviour could potentially cause restrictive effects on competition by creating obstacles to the development of effective competition in the market for standard mail services.

 

In order to address the competition concerns expressed by the AdC, CTT submitted on 22 December 2017 a set of commitments that expand the scope of CTT’s Postal Network Access Offer (Access Offer) available to competing postal operators, which can be described as follows:

 

(i) Availability of new postal services in the Access Offer, notably publishing, priority and registered mail services;

(ii) Availability of new access points in CTT’s postal network, further downstream in the postal distribution chain, notably to the Inward Sorting Centres and to a wide range of CTT shops (except for standard mail weighing less than 50 gr);

(iii) Faster delivery time for access at CTT shops concerning standard mail weighing more than 50 gr and publishing mail;

(iv) Competing postal operators may carry out additional sorting tasks, notably by sorting mail according to the delivery area of Delivery Offices and street name.

(v) Access prices below retail prices for final customers, differentiated according to the access point, postal service and sorting tasks carried out by the competing postal operator.

 

According to Law no. 19/2012 of 8 May (Portuguese Competition Act), the AdC may accept commitments offered by the investigated undertakings if such commitments are likely to eliminate the anticompetitive effects resulting from the investigated practices.

 

CTT is obliged to comply with this set of commitments, under the supervision of the AdC.

The commitments offered by CTT are, as from today, subject to public consultation for a period of 20 working days.

 

Following the public consultation, the AdC will adopt a final decision in which it will take into account the comments presented by interested third parties.

The results of the public consultation will be published on the AdC’s official website.

   

  28 December 2017