Swiss Post’s letter monopoly to be reduced

The Swiss government announced on 22 April that it would cut Swiss Post’s monopoly, reducing the weight of letters over which it has exclusive delivery rights to 50 grams from 100 grams.

The Swiss government announced on 22 April that it would cut Swiss Post’s monopoly, reducing the weight of letters over which it has exclusive delivery rights to 50 grams from 100 grams.

The new ruling, to be introduced on 1 July, will put an estimated 25% of letter deliveries in Switzerland onto a competitive market, the government said in a statement.

Swiss Post is wholly state-owned and the country’s second-biggest employer.
“Currently about 12% of deliveries are on the competitive market,” a government spokesman said.

The move comes as part of a 2008 government plan to open up the letter market completely by 2012, and follows a 2006 reduction to 100 grams from 200 grams which weakened Swiss Post’s source of financing for its service.

The government also announced that it would be reforming the structure of the post regulation authority, PostReg, giving consumers more rights to launch general service complaints.

The Swiss communications trade unions criticised the news as a “huge strategic mistake”, saying it would cost many jobs and could lead to the closure of 400 post offices as a competitive market erodes Swiss Post’s finances.

In 2007, the European Union announced plans to liberalise the postal services market in the 27-nation bloc.