EU tells Slovakia to keep mail service competitive

European Union antitrust regulators ordered Slovakia to reopen competition in its postal sector, ruling that recent legal changes violated EU rules on dominant market positions.

Before February, the Slovak postal system was open to competition and several private companies were active in the sector. But then the government amended the law, reserving the delivery of some mail to the incumbent postal operator.

‘The (European) Commission’s decision is directly legally binding on Slovakia, which must inform the Commission within one month of the measures undertaken to ensure that hybrid mail services remain open to competition,’ it said in a statement.

The amendment extended the monopoly of incumbent operator Slovenska Posta to the delivery of hybrid mail services, while this activity had until then been open to competition.

European Union antitrust regulators ordered Slovakia to reopen competition in its postal sector, ruling that recent legal changes violated EU rules on dominant market positions, the EU executive said.

Before February, the Slovak postal system was open to competition and several private companies were active in the sector. But then the government amended the law, reserving the delivery of some mail to the incumbent postal operator.

‘The (European) Commission’s decision is directly legally binding on Slovakia, which must inform the Commission within one month of the measures undertaken to ensure that hybrid mail services remain open to competition,’ it said in a statement.

The amendment extended the monopoly of incumbent operator Slovenska Posta to the delivery of hybrid mail services, while this activity had until then been open to competition.

Hybrid mail is a specific form of postal service where the content is electronically transferred from the sender to the postal service operator who then prints, envelopes, sorts and delivers the postal items.

It is important for banks, insurance and telecoms companies, for example, which regularly have to send large amounts of mail.