31 May 2012
31.05.2012
ANCOM applied a RON 50,000 fine to S.C. TOTAL POST SERVICES S.R.L., which provided – to the postal boxes of the addressees – postal services subject to clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of items of correspondence weighing between 0 and 50 g, charging less than RON 2/item. The company thus breached the exclusive right reserved to the Romanian Post National Company S.A. (CNPR) in its capacity as a universal service provider in the postal sector throughout Romania.
The control actions undertaken by ANCOM showed that the postal service provider Total Post Services concluded contracts with several companies in view of providing postal services at a price lower than the one reserved for the universal service provider, CNPR.
This is the second fine ANCOM applied to this postal operator, after the sanction enforced in October 2011 for the breach of the same legal provisions.
Besides the fine, ANCOM also decided that the contracts which bring prejudice to the rights of the universal service provider have to be amended within 30 days.
“The amount of the fine applied to Total Post is justified, on the one hand, by the fact that this company did not modify the contract which was subject to the sanction enforced last year and, on the other hand, by the fact that the same situation was found in the case of other contracts as well. We will continue to verify how the postal service providers comply with the legal provisions and we will apply sanctions and fines that can range between RON 5,000 and 60,000, depending on the contraventions found. In case of serious deviations, the fines can reach up to 2% of the turnover, and in case of repeated breaches, up to 5% of the turnover, for the postal service providers with a turnover exceeding RON 3 million. At the same time, we will verify the extent to which CNPR complies with its obligations as universal service provider”, the Director of the Monitoring and Control Executive Division within ANCOM, Mr. Cristin Popa, stated.
Any authorised postal 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.
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.