Postwatch posts complaint against Royal Mail UK

Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for Royal Mail, has submitted a “super-complaint” against the mail delivery monopoly on behalf of a number of business customers. A spokesman for the organisation said yesterday that the complaint had been submitted to the Office of Fair Trading after a number of major customers of Royal Mail had complained that it was abusing its dominant market position. The customers include “major household names”, the spokesman said and added that they did not wish to be named because they had to deal with Royal Mail every day. The customers are complaining that they have to sign contracts with Royal Mail that allows the monopoly to change the terms of its letter delivery with very little notice and no consultation. “It is between consenting adults, but one of the adults can say `like it or lump it’ and the other has no other choice,” the Postwatch spokesman said. The OFT now has 90 days to reply to the complaint. The spokesman said that he didn’t expect Royal Mail to be fined. A Royal Mail spokesman said that the organisation had very little notice of the super-complaint, which is one of the first under the Enterprise Act 2002. “We will be studying the submission,” she said.