Post compensation obligation
The liability and compensation obligation of the postal company in Germany is based on the statutory postal regulations applicable to the postal system and the rules of the commercial code for general transport.
The liability is basically unlimited but depends on fault. Post is only liable to pay compensation for lost or damaged items up to the amount of its own fault or that can be attributed to it through third parties and can be proven . In many cases, liability is further limited by special regulations.
The Universal Postal Agreement and the Postal Parcel Convention of the Universal Postal Union contain such a regulation for insured items abroad . In the event of a loss, you only have to replace the item up to the amount stated on the outside of the parcel or letter .
This restriction does not apply to shipments exclusively within Germany. If Swiss Post accepts a shipment of any value, even contrary to its own terms and conditions, it is liable for an unlimited amount of liability in the event of willful or reckless loss or damage.
Contractually guaranteed liability of Deutsche Post AG
In practice, however, the statutory scope of liability vis-à-vis Deutsche Post AG can only be enforced through legal channels.
In general business dealings, the Post invokes a contractual limitation of liability despite conflicting rulings by the BGH. The avoidance of the legal limits of liability is sought by excluding goods from a certain value in their general terms and conditions. Shipments that do not exceed the intended value of the goods are referred to as "insured". Shipments with a goods value exceeding this are designated as "prohibited goods" and liability for these is rejected.
For normal parcels the value is currently (February 2008) at 500 euros. However, DHL offers additional transport insurance, which increases this amount to up to 25,000 euros.
In this context, the Post or its subsidiary DHL is liable without evidence of whether it or a representative is at fault; the fact that damage has occurred and is reported within a certain period is sufficient. In the event of damage, however, liability is regularly denied with the reference to "inadequate packaging or packaging that does not comply with the terms and conditions". Due to the generally low amounts in dispute and the correspondingly high litigation risk and effort, many customers forego the judicial enforcement of their claims for damages.
Swiss Post completely refuses to accept liability for normal letter mail .
Liability limited in amount, whereby the cause of the damage is insignificant, exists or has existed for registered letters , for ordinary parcels , mail items and pieces of mail , for unsealed and sealed value parcels , for insured letters , for postal orders , for the collection of a postal order to collect money , for the collection of the cash on delivery amount , for postal orders and payment orders as well as payment cards .
For the execution of the postal protest order , in the postal check service and in the postal travel service , the German Post is liable within the framework of the statutory provisions.
The sender only has to prove that the shipment has been posted. A posting slip is issued for all mail items for which Swiss Post is liable . If the customer cannot provide this evidence, other evidence can also be provided. In many cases, the posting is based on internal postal documents.
History of Liability at Post
In the Prussian postal order of 1712 it says in § 10: “ The post offices have to answer for money and other parcels like cheap. With the exception of losses on third-party posts, coincidences, force majeure, events that could not be prevented or foreseen by the post office. In the event of loss at someone else's post, the assistance of the general post office, possibly the king himself, is guaranteed. “For registered letters, if at all admitted, there was no liability in Germany. It was only through the influence of the French post office in Germany that the guilty official had to pay a fine of 1 Taler in Hanover , 16 Taler 40 Stüber in the Duchy of Berg and 50 Francs in the Kingdom of Westphalia . In Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony the fine was 10 thalers and in Baden 25 guilders.
In the postal union contract , the loss of a registered letter with 1 Mark fine silver = 14 thalers north German, 20 gulden Austrian or 24½ gulden south German was replaced. For parcels the actual value or, if the value is stated, this value but no more than 10 thalers or 30 kreuzers for each pound. There was no liability due to the consequences of war or natural events.
The Prussian Postal Act of 1852 regulates the replacement of money mail, for parcels with or without an indication of the value, for letters with an indication of the value in the event of loss or damage, and for registered letters and Estafette items in the event of loss. If normal parcels were lost, there was a maximum of 10 silver groschen (Sgr.) Per pound, for registered letters and Estafette items 14 thalers.
The replacement amounts have been adjusted again and again over time. During the period of inflation, it rose to 1.6 trillion marks per pound for parcels, or 20 trillion marks for a lost registered letter, only to drop from 1925 to 3 RM per pound for a normal parcel and 40 RM for a registered letter.
At the Bundespost , the maximum replacement amount for registered letters was DM 20 on September 1, 1948 ; it rose to DM 34 in 1949 and rose to DM 32.50 by March 14, 1961. The maximum replacement amounts for registered mail to and from abroad were DM 4 November 1969 30 DM.
In 1959, in the German Democratic Republic , 40 marks for registered mail, the stated value for valuables or the insured amount for insured parcels and insured business mail, and 100 marks (1967 to 500 marks) for normal parcels and business parcels without insurance were replaced.
Currently (2008), Deutsche Post AG is voluntarily liable up to € 25 for loss or damage to a registered letter and for normal parcels in the case of national dispatch, in principle up to a total of € 500.
