Summary of Commission Decision of 7 October 2008 relating to a proceeding under Article 86(3) of the EC Treaty on the Slovakian postal legislation relating to hybrid mail services (Case COMP/F-1/39.562) (notified under document number C(2008) 5912)
Date: 2008-12-17
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Slovakia, access to information, freedom to provide services, monopoly, postal service

C 322/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

17.12.2008

Summary of Commission Decision

of 7 October 2008

relating to a proceeding under Article 86(3) of the EC Treaty on the Slovakian postal legislation
relating to hybrid mail services

(Case COMP/F-1/39.562)

(notified under document number C(2008) 5912)

(Only the Slovak text is authentic)

(2008/C 322/06)

1. On 7 October 2008, the Commission adopted a decision pursuant to Article 86(3) of the EC Treaty.
The Commission herewith publishes the main content of the decision and the name of the undertaking
concerned, having regard to the legitimate interest of undertakings in the protection of their business
interests. A non-confidential version of the full text of the decision in the authentic language and in
English is available on the Competition Directorate General website at the following address:

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/antitrust/cases/index.html

2. This decision is addressed to the Slovak Republic. The subject matter of the procedure is the extension

of the postal monopoly of the postal incumbent Slovenská pošta.

3. Hybrid mail is a specific form of postal service where the content is electronically transferred from the
sender to the postal service operator who then prints, envelopes, sorts and delivers the postal items.
Hybrid mail is an important feature for companies such as banks, insurance companies and telecommu-
nication undertakings who regularly have to send large amounts of mail (for example invoices).

4. In the Slovak Republic, the delivery of hybrid mail items was open to competition and several private
companies were active on the market. However, on 8 November 2007, a legislative proposal aimed at
reserving the delivery of hybrid mail to Slovenská pošta was introduced in Parliament. This proposal
was adopted in second reading on 15 February 2008 and became applicable on 1 April 2008.

5. At the same time, on 30 November 2007, the Postal Regulatory Office issued a public statement
informing stakeholders that, despite previous statements and decisions, it would now consider hybrid
mail delivery to be part of the postal monopoly.

6. As a consequence, the private operators were prevented from exercising their activity in this field and
incurred losses that endangered their viability. Moreover, the value added services that these operators
offered were no longer available to customers.

7. Slovenská pošta is fully owned by the Slovak Republic and is thus a public undertaking. It also enjoys
exclusive rights in relation to traditional mail items below 50 g and 2,5 times the basic postal tariff.
Accordingly, Article 86 is applicable.

8. As a result of its exclusive rights, Slovenská pošta is dominant on the market of traditional postal
services in a substantial part of the common market, namely the territory of Slovakia. By extending the
postal monopoly to delivery services of hybrid mail, which were so far open to competition, and
thereby by restricting the offer of postal services available to customers the Slovak Republic infringed
Article 86(1), in conjunction with Article 82 of the EC Treaty.

9. Under Article 86(2) of the EC Treaty, undertakings entrusted with an operation of services of general
economic interest shall be subject to treaty rules, in particular the rules on competition, in so far as the
application of such rules does not obstruct the performance of the particular task assigned to them. It
is for the Member State to demonstrate that the restriction of competition is necessary for providing
such services of general economic interest.

17.12.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 322/11

10. The Slovak Republic and Slovenská pošta claimed that the restriction of competition at hand was neces-
sary for the provision of the postal universal service. However, neither the Slovak Republic nor
Slovenská pošta have been able to provide convincing evidence that, without the re monopolisation of
hybrid mail, Slovenská pošta would no longer be in a position to provide the postal universal service
under economically acceptable conditions.

11. The Decision calls upon the Slovak Republic to propose effective measures so as to put an end to the
infringement and to inform the Commission accordingly within one month of receipt of the decision.