Norway’s national postal operator has been fined almost €13 million for breaching Europeancompetition rules covering the parcels sector.
Posten Norge told CEP-Research it was surprised by the decision, and that it was consideringlaunching an appeal.
The case concerns the handling of parcels sent by mail-order and e-commerce companies toNorwegian consumers, where Posten Norge “has had a particularly strong position in this market”,said the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA).
The authority concluded that Posten Norge infringed Article 54 of the EEA Agreement by abusingits dominant position in Norway between 2000 and 2006.
Following a complaint, the authority said it carried out an extensive investigation of PostenNorge’s exclusivity agreements with certain retail groups and outlets (grocery stores, kiosks andpetrol stations) for the establishment of its Post-in-Shop network.
The agreements made it difficult for competing suppliers of parcel delivery services fromestablishing a nationwide, competing delivery network of collection points for their parcels, saidthe ESA.
Tormod Johansen, Deputy Director of Competition and State Aid at the ESA told CEP-Research: “Forexample, in the agreement with the largest retail group on Norway, the exclusivity covered thewhole group – whether Posten Norge used the outlet or not – ensuring that none of Posten Norge’scompetitors could use any of its stores.”
Per Andreas Bjørgan, Director of Competition and State Aid, said: “Without such exclusivityagreements, competing suppliers of parcel delivery services could have provided for increasedcompetition and lower prices in the market. This would have benefitted mail-order and e-commercecompanies, and ultimately consumers.”
Johansen told CEP-Research there had been some similar infringements in the past by the German,Danish and Swedish postal operators, although Swedish Post had notified the competition authorityof its actions and later agreed to remove the exclusivity clauses in its agreements.
A spokesman for Posten Norge told CEP-Research that the company had also removed any exclusivityclauses in its agreements with retailers in 2006, “because our businesses were well enoughestablished that we no longer needed them to be exclusive. “Now in some of the shops, we havecompetitors doing the same thing.”
Although Posten Norge acknowledges its agreements contained exclusivity clauses, the spokesmantold CEP-Research: “But we are surprised by this fine, because we don’t think that we broke thecompetition rules during this time.
“We have two months in which we can launch an appeal, so we will be using this time to look atthis ruling and decide whether to appeal it.”
The ESA said that in setting the fine, the authority has taken into account factors such asPosten Norge’s sales in the market concerned during the last full business year before ending theinfringement, the nature of the infringement, the market share of Posten Norge and the geographicscope and duration of the infringement.
