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PRESS PACK 2. The Cost of the Postal Monopolies’ Shopping Spree for Postal Users Over the past 5 years, European national postal operators have invested massively into competitive sectors. This is especially true for the four biggest operators in Europe (TPG, Deutsche Post World Net, Consignia and La Poste of France) that have acquired, according to the information gathered by the FFPI, more than 120 companies in markets neighbouring to the postal market, for instance in parcel delivery, transport and logistics. The shopping sprees of Deutsche Post World Net and TPG amounts to more than 90 companies, with the Deutsche Post in the lead, having made over 60 acquisitions in 5 years. Other European postal operators have begun to pursue acquisitions and co-operation strategies of their own albeit normally not on a global scale. These investments have a direct impact on users and consumers of postal services because they are in many cases in practice paying the bill without necessarily getting anything in return. The absence of clear, transparent, accounting as required by EC law and of critical scrutiny of the practices applied by the postal operators-, inevitably leads one to assume that many acquisitions are financed, at least in part, with monopoly revenues. The EU needs to act in order to ensure that these revenues are used to maintain or improve the quality of postal services in the reserved area offered by postal monopolies rather than to finance their expansion into competitive markets. Postal users are worried that the ongoing shopping spree also will lead to further stamp price increases. That would amount to price hikes for entirely wrong reasons. In addition, stamp price hikes could also have a negative impact in some competitive sectors where the massive scale of the investments made by postal operator risk limiting competition. This would mean that the users and consumers would pay the bill twice! |
