New tasks for the Bundesnetzagentur in the postal sector
Year of issue 2024
Date of issue 2024.07.05
The German Bundesrat has today consented to the Postal Legislation Modernisation Act, enabling the Act to enter into force in the next few weeks. The Act strengthens the Bundesnetzagentur's role and gives the authority various additional tasks in the postal sector.
"The world is not what it was 27 years ago,"
said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur. "The old Postal Act was no longer capable of responding adequately to the ongoing process of digitalisation in communications or the growth of e‑commerce. The new Act creates the necessary instruments for the Bundesnetzagentur. We will use these instruments and continue to safeguard viable postal services and fair competition."
Viable postal services
The new Act changes the rules for letter and parcel delivery speeds. As from 2025, on an annual national average, 95% of all letters and parcels must be delivered within three working days and 99% of all letters within four working days. The aim behind reducing the speed of delivery is to make it possible to keep prices at an affordable level despite the continuing decrease in volumes. At the same time, the higher percentage targets for service provision will result in greater reliability to the benefit of customers. There will be no need to use climate-damaging air transport for domestic letter deliveries. The Bundesnetzagentur will use its own measurements to monitor compliance with the delivery targets.
In future, Deutsche Post AG's self-service kiosks will count together with its post offices towards meeting the company's nationwide service obligations, provided that the kiosks have been approved by the Bundesnetzagentur in consultation with the municipalities concerned. As the self-service kiosks can be used around the clock, this is likely to mean a considerable improvement in quality for many people, as long as the kiosks are accessible for people with disabilities and easy to use.
Up until now, the Bundesnetzagentur has had no legal basis to enforce quality of service requirements effectively. The new Act equips the Bundesnetzagentur with powers that it can use in the event of serious, persistent or repeated non-compliance.
The Act will not have any immediate impact on prices. The current approved letter prices will be applicable until the end of the year.
Fair competition in postal markets
The Act may provide new impetus for competition in the letter markets. Regional letter service providers will be able to hand over newspapers, magazines and smaller items containing goods to Deutsche Post AG if the items need to be delivered outside the providers' own regions. This could put smaller companies in a better position to participate in the growing e‑commerce market. The Bundesnetzagentur's new market monitoring powers will enable it to identify any impairment of competition more quickly.
New market entry procedure for providers
The new Act does away with the distinction between a licence requirement for letter service providers and a notification requirement in particular for parcel service providers. In future, postal operators will need to be entered in a provider register. The registering process will involve the Bundesnetzagentur checking that each provider has the necessary reliability, financial resources and expertise. Compliance with the legal requirements for working conditions will play a particular role.
Operators of post offices will not need to register.
Transitional arrangements will ensure that all providers currently operating will be able to continue providing their postal services. The Bundesnetzagentur will publish detailed information for the companies concerned once the new Act has entered into force at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/post-aktuelles (in German).