Commission closes French investigation

The European Commission on Tuesday closed its investigation into a special government guarantee to France’s postal company La Poste because a new law will put an end to it, reports Dow Jones Newswires. The article continues:

The commission “concluded that the transformation of La Poste into a limited company (…) would effectively put an end to the guarantee,” the commission, the European Union’s antitrust body, said in a statement.

The commission opened a probe in October 2007, after the French government failed to respond to the commission’s earlier recommendation that Paris withdraw its unlimited guarantee for the mail carrier’s liabilities.

The government backing enabled La Poste to obtain finances on better terms than its competitors, and was distorting competition at a time when the postal sector is being liberalised, the commission had said.