Tag: UK

Postcomm’s review of PAF has split industry opinion. While many recognise its financial importance to Royal Mail, others fear a repeat of the ‘fiasco’ which followed the deregulation of directory enquiries. Regulator Postcomm’s decision to start a full-scale review of Royal Mail’s Postal Address File (PAF) has sparked major debate in the industry. One side says ‘about time’; the other ‘why now?’. Originally created by Royal Mail to help postal delivery, the file – updated quarterly – has long since been adopted by businesses as a tool to locate, verify and clean customer addresses, and aid marketing. It is also used extensively within geographical information systems (GIS) to draw up location analyses. However, criticism is never far away. More than 12 years ago, the industry was in uproar after Royal Mail terminated all licence agreements with PAF bureaux and forced them to sign new contracts. Price rises of up to 250 per cent ensued. Meanwhile, the current review has been sparked, in part, by a rash of complaints over unfair pricing, and concerns that Royal Mail could exploit its monopolistic position.

Royal Mail has been hit with another multi million pound fine by the industry’s regulator after being accused of securing “unfair commercial advantage”, it was announced today. Postcomm proposed a fine of GBP2.16 million because the company had failed to take adequate steps to make sure it did not gain an unfair commercial advantage in the newly-liberalised mail market. The fine follows a penalty of GBP11.7 million against Royal Mail announced earlier this month because of the amount of lost or damaged post. The Royal Mail hit back angrily at the latest fine, denouncing the decision as “shoddy.”