23 May 2012
ANCOM applied a RON 20,000 fine to S.C. DID RAPID CURIER S.R.L. from Targu Mures for having provided postal services consisting of correspondence items weighing between 0-50 g to addressees residing in Alba, Arges, Caras-Severin, Cluj, Dolj, Mehedinti, Mures and Sibiu counties, against a tariff below RON 2/item. The company thus breached the exclusive right reserved the Romanian Post National Company S.A. (CNPR) in its capacity as a universal service provider in the postal sector in Romania.
Besides the fine, ANCOM also decided that the contract which does not observe the legal provisions in force, respectively the universal service provider’s rights, has to be amended within 30 days.
This is the sixth sanction ANCOM applied to a postal service operator for the breach of the exclusive right of CNPR, and is also the highest fine enforced so far. The amount of the fine was set in keeping with the seriousness of the deed and with the company’s previous breaches.
In order to ensure the users’ access to the universal service in the postal field, CNPR benefits, among others, from the exclusive right to provide until 31 December 2012 postal services dealing with correspondence items weighing less than 50 g and costing less than RON 2, regardless of whether their delivery is accelerated or not, and consisting of the clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of domestic correspondence items and distribution of correspondence items sent from outside Romania to an address located on its territory.
CNPR benefits from reserved rights since, in its capacity of universal service provider, it has also the obligation to cover with postal services the entire national territory in order to enable each inhabitant to have access to postal services, regardless of the locality where she/he lives. Hence, the universal service provider has the obligation to provide services throughout Romania, at the same tariffs, including in the hard accessible or low density geographic areas, where the correspondence volume is low and therefore the activity is not profitable. As well, CNPR has the obligation to make available for the users at least one postal box and at least one contact point in each locality on the Romanian territory.
Any authorised postal service provider is allowed to provide services within the scope of universal service under the condition they comply with the rights reserved to CNPR in terms of weighing and tariff limits, including when they grant tariff discounts to the sender. The conclusion and execution of a contract under which the price per item is below RON 2 for items of correspondence weighing between 0 and 50 g, delivered to the addressees’ postal boxes, is a contravention.
“ANCOM will keep taking measures to ensure that all the postal providers observe the reserved right of the universal service provider. We intend to enforce even harsher sanctions to those who breach the rules, in order to discourage this phenomenon which seems to have become quite wide-spread lately. At the same time, ANCOM will verify the compliance of CNPR with the obligations incumbent from its capacity as a universal service provider, applying sanctions where necessary”, the Director of the Monitoring and Control Executive Division within ANCOM, Mr. Cristin Popa, said.