Romanian Post Office, suspected of abusing its dominant position

The Council of Competition has automatically begun an investigation on a possible breach of domestic and European rules by the Romanian Post Office (CNPR), following the decision of the latter to cut fees for standard postal services. According to a press release sent to our editors, the competition watchdog suspects that CNPR abused its dominant position by applying several discounted fees, for intermediaries that provide standard postal services such as delivery of commercial correspondence and Infadres (sending advertising material by mail to domestic addressees).

At the same time, the currently ongoing investigation, which was launched in 2006, on the possible infringement on national legislation by CNPR, was expanded, as there are suspicions that the practices of the CNPR may have affected the development of trade with the EU Member States, in a manner that is contrary to the interests of the European Union to provide a functional unified market.

The investigation concerns a possible abuse of dominant position by the Post Office by cutting fees and setting longer payment terms to some of its beneficiaries which provide the Infadres service. The intermediaries are companies that produce flyers deliverable by mail, as well as those that provide services of taking over and sorting mail.

The commercial correspondence service is the service for sending regular priority mail deliverable at the address printed by the sender on the package, whereas the Infadres service refers to the sending advertising by post to specific addressees.