Press Release: The Commission acts against the discrimination of mail preparation service providers in Germany

The European Commission ruled against certain provisions in Germany's postal regulatory framework which bar commercial mail preparation firms from earning discounts for handing over pre-sorted letters at Deutsche Post AG's (DPAG) sorting centres, 20 October 2004. The Commission holds that the incriminated provisions induced DPAG to discriminate against mail preparation firms: whilst large senders were allowed to feed self-prepared mail directly into sorting centres and were granted discounts for doing so, commercial firms were barred from discounts for mail preparation.