Mail monopoly (Switzerland)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The letter monopoly in Switzerland is a supply monopoly that allows the transport of letters up to a certain weight as "reserved services" only by Swiss Post . In return, Swiss Post must offer mail delivery as a nationwide public service. The letter monopoly is regulated in the Postal Act and in the Postal Ordinance (VPG).

history

The deregulation of the Swiss postal market began in the late 1990s with the postal and telecommunications reform. The Swiss postal market was then divided into two segments. In the area of ​​universal service, Swiss Post, as a monopoly, had the sole right to provide so-called reserved services (e.g. addressed domestic letters up to a certain weight limit) and at the same time had to have so-called non-reserved services (e.g. letters abroad). to offer. The competition service comprised products and services (e.g. express mail) that Swiss Post could, but did not have to offer. Potential private providers were free to operate in the area of ​​non-reserved services and competitive services. The postal companies have traditionally financed themselves with the reserved services in order to guarantee nationwide universal services at uniform prices, the so-called public service. After the implementation of the postal and telecom reform in 1997, the weight limit for domestic letters and letters and parcels received from abroad was reduced from 5 kg to 2 kg and thus assigned to the competitive services. In 2004, this weight limit was reduced to 1 kg, the parcel post market was completely liberalized, a license regime for non-reserved services was introduced, a postal regulatory authority (PostReg) was set up and the monopoly position of the Swiss Post was gradually restricted. In April 2006, the dispatch of letters over 100 grams was removed from the area of ​​non-reserved services and assigned to the competitive services. In accordance with the concession regime for private parcel service providers, a concession requirement was also introduced in this case in order to ensure high-quality services and industry-standard working conditions.

In July 2009, the next and so far last step in the liberalization of the postal market followed, the reduction of the letter monopoly to 50 grams, which means that 75% of all letter mail still falls under the monopoly. A full approval for items below 50 g was rejected by the National Council in 2010 .

The letter monopoly is monitored today by the PostCom postal commission . Private providers must obtain a license from PostReg. As of 2018, there were nine concessionaires who had obtained a concession for both parcels and letters over 50 g and for outgoing letters: Courrex, DHL , DPD , FedEx , G3, GO! Express & Logistics , Quickmail , Time Service and UPS .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Effects of postal market liberalization 2011 (Etten, M., Riechmann, C., Strobel, C., Vaterlaus, S., & Zenhäusern, P. (2007). Effects of postal market liberalization 2011. Modeling on behalf of GS-DETEC. London: Frontier Economics Ltd.)
  2. ^ SDA : Holding on to the letter monopoly . In: NZZ from May 19, 2010.
  3. ↑ Concessionaires on the PostReg website. (Accessed October 28, 2018.)