Tag: Europe

On 15 November 2007, the European Court of Justice issued a ruling about the interpretation of the EU regulation that allows Posts to keep international mail under their monopoly. If this ruling is taken over by the Spanish Supreme Court, this will open up further opportunities for Spring Global Mail and other postal service providers in cross border mail services throughout Europe.

This preliminary ruling is the result of a case pending in the Spanish Supreme Court against International Mail Spain SL (a subsidiary of Spring Global Mail) in which Spanish postal operator Correos contend that IMS have breached their monopoly on outbound international mail services. International Mail Spain SL placed letterboxes in hotels, camp sites, apartment blocks and supermarkets in major Spanish tourist locations. This allowed tourists to send their postcards abroad using special stamps bought with the postcards.

The Spanish Supreme Court doubted if factors other than financial stability needed to be considered when reserving a monopoly on international outbound mail. One of the other factors suggested by the Spanish Supreme Court included the degree of postal sector liberalization at the time the reservation was made.

The European Court of Justice ruling states that Posts may only reserve cross border mail services if absence of such a monopoly would prevent universal postal delivery. The ruling also states that such a monopoly is only permissible when it is necessary for carrying out the service under economically acceptable conditions.

This effectively means that the Spanish regulator and Correos would need to prove that the universal postal service would be endangered if the monopoly on international mail services ceased to exist.