Record number of postal and telecommunications dispute resolution requests in 2024
Year of issue 2025
Date of issue 2025.01.31
The Bundesnetzagentur’s dispute resolution panels have published their activity reports for 2024.
"Our dispute resolution panels provide an accessible, free and efficient procedure and enable conflicts to be settled between consumers and companies. We are pleased that this service is being taken up by an increasing number of consumers,"
said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur.
Postal dispute resolution panel
The postal dispute resolution panel mediates in particular disputes between postal operators and customers. In 2024 the panel received 4,115 submissions. This represents an increase of 15% compared with 2023 (3,574). The number of submissions exceeded the 4,000 mark for the first time, reflecting the growing interest in out-of-court dispute resolution.
In 2024 the panel completed the processing of 3,162 requests for dispute resolution. In 2,000 cases, the panel was not responsible, the necessary conditions were not met or the request was withdrawn. The panel was able to bring about an agreement in 687 cases.
The majority of the requests received by the panel concerned problems with parcel delivery (77.1%). The next largest number of requests were about problems with letters (7.2%), followed by small packets (7.1%); 5.3% of the requests concerned registered items and 3.3% other types of item. As regards the actual problem, most of the requests were about lost (60.6%) and damaged (20.9%) items.
Telecommunications dispute resolution panel
The telecommunications dispute resolution panel mediates in conflicts between telecommunications companies and their customers. In 2024 the panel received 2,534 requests for dispute resolution. This was the highest number ever received since the panel was set up in 1999. There was an increase of nearly 10% in the number of requests received compared with 2023. The panel also received 673 other enquiries and requests for assistance for which the panel gave its additional support.
The telecommunications dispute resolution panel completed the processing of 2,206 procedures. In about 700 cases the panel was not responsible or the request was withdrawn. Agreement was reached in 908 cases. In 576 cases the respondent refused to take part in or continue with the procedure. Participation in telecommunications dispute resolution is voluntary for both parties.
The most common sources of dispute were the content and implementation of contracts (35%), technical faults (23%) and billing issues (12%). Other topics included data transmission speeds, moving premises, switching provider and disconnections.
The Bundesnetzagentur has published the 2024 activity reports from the postal and telecommunications dispute resolution panels together with further information on dispute resolution at: www.bundesnetzagentur.de/post-schlichtungsstelle (post) and www.bundesnetzagentur.de/tk-schlichtungsstelle-bericht (telecommunications) (both in German).
