EU court rules against UPS claims Deutsche Post violated EU rules
The European Court of Justice bolstered Deutsche Post’s growing presence on the European express mail delivery market Wednesday by rejecting charges by United Parcel Service of the United States that its purchase of DHL International violated EU fair trade legislation.
Atlanta-based UPS sought to stop the purchase of DHL arguing it gave Deutsche Post a dominant position in the express market.
“UPS has not proved any abusive practice on the part of Deutsche Post on the reserved letter market,” the court said in its ruling, adding the German company did not use profits made from its national postal monopoly to fund the DHL purchase.
UPS filed complaints with European regulators in 1998, when Deutsche Post informed the EU executive Commission of its plans to buy DHL.
The EU head office rejected the complaints in June, 1998. UPS then launched legal action in the EU high court. It has 2 months to decide on an appeal against Wednesday’s decision.
Deutsche Post continues to be the focus of EU antitrust investigations.
A year ago, the European Commission fined the company 24 million euros ($21.6 million) for anticompetitive practices on an earlier complaint filed by UPS.
EU regulators found Deutsche Post abused its position in Germany by offering special rates to mail-order companies in exchange for sending all parcels of a certain size with them.
