French government to set up independent regulatory body for post
The European Commission has given the French government two months in which to set up an independent regulatory body to ensure that fair trading reigns in the French postal services market. More specifically, the new authority will prevent La Poste from imposing tariffs and conditions on this market to the detriment of private courier companies.
So far the European competition commission is not convinced that La Poste’s position in the express-mail market is neutral. It pointed to the ‘conflict of interest’ generated by La Poste’s own involvement in this market via its Datapost subsidiary, Dynapost and Mikros subsidiaries. The European Court of Justice has ruled, meanwhile, that failure to separate a state-owned company from the authority which regulates that company’s sector of activity is an infringement of European Union regulations
