Legal challenge over letter costs for Deutsche Post

Deutsche Post AG (G.DPW) faced Wednesday the threat of a legal dispute with a leading German industry group seeking repayments for letter costs. The German Association of Wholesale and Export Traders said it would demand repayments from Deutsche Post in a forthcoming complaint over monopoly letter prices to the state court of Berlin. Deutsche Post has an exclusive right to deliver letters of up to 200 grams in Germany for at least EUR0.56 a letter. The minimum letter price is set by German regulators, who are examining whether to lower it next year. ‘The fixed stamp price of Deutsche Post is being charged without a legal basis,’ the trade association, known as the BGA, said in a statement announcing the planned complaint. The complaint will be filed next Tuesday. Andreas Kammholz, head of the BGA’s legal services division, said Deutsche Post would be targeted in the complaint because the association is a formal client of the partially privatized mail company. Kammholz said the legal case would likely last between six months and one year. If the BGA wins, it believes other Deutsche Post clients would be encouraged to file similar complaints against the company, Kammholz said. He said the BGA complaint would be the first of its kind, but declined to disclose the legal details of it. The BGA plans to discuss the complaint at a press conference in Berlin next Tuesday at 0930 GMT. Deutsche Post and German government officials weren’t immediately available for comment.