Deutsche Post sees ‘noticeable competition’ in mail ops only by 2007 at earliest

Deutsche Post World Net AG expects its mail operations monopoly will face ‘completely noticeable competition’ only by 2007 at the earliest, a company spokesman said in reaction to the decision of the German Cartel Office to demand an end to its monopoly on letters weighing less than 100 grams. He said before this time, one could not expect that competitors would be able to use ‘the possibilities in all its latitude’ within its network. The Cartel Office today said Deutsche Post must open up its monopoly on the collection and sorting of letters weighing below 100 grams. Deutsche Post is scheduled to lose its monopoly at the end of 2007 as part of an EU-wide move to liberalise the market for mail delivery.