For private customers, letter postage is in most cases not an important expense in the household budget. According to the Federal Statistical Office, private households spend an average of 2.09 euros per month on stamps.
With corporate customers, the situation is very different. Insurance companies, banks or telecommunications companies often come up with double-digit million euros for letter services each year.
For major customers, it is anything but “petty cash” expenditure. The topic of letter postage had already attracted the attention of companies two years ago after a court ruling by the Leipzig Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG 6 C1.19) against the postage increases from 2016 to 2018.
Now there is another judgment with a similar outcome: The Cologne administrative court has declared the determination of letter postage by the responsible Federal Network Agency from the years 2019 to 2021 to be unlawful (Cologne Administrative Court 21 K 273/20). The authority “assumed an inaccurate standard for the approvable costs of Deutsche Post AG,” it says in justification.
The topic is complex, but Swiss Post and its customers will probably be dealing with it even more in the future. The decisions of the courts have so far had no consequences for private customers.
This is because, according to the courts, overpaid postage can only be reclaimed by the successful plaintiffs against the letter postage in the respective court case. In the case of the Cologne verdict, these were the Federal Association of Parcel and Express Logistics (BIEK), the companies Arriva, Postcon, PIN and Letterei and the German pension insurance. Claims for damages against Deutsche Post are therefore possible.
But there is already one – albeit curious – step by Swiss Post. For example, the BIEK association, in which Deutsche Post’s main competitors are organized, received compensation from the postal group. “The Post gave us stamps free of charge. First of all, we don’t have to pay any more postage,” said BIEK chairman Marten Bosselmann.
However, his organization is not primarily concerned with cash payments or damages by the post office. “We demand an amendment to the postal law and fairness in the competition in the postal market,” said Bosselmann. According to the BIEK, the postal group has “illegally made a profit of 450 million euros” through excessive letter postage in recent years.
The anger in the postal industry is sparked by the current approval process. In addition to the costs of Deutsche Post in letter delivery, the criteria for a postage increase in the Postal Act also include the level of profit margins of other European postal companies. Deutsche Post can use this as a basis for price increases.
Another important interest group for postal customers, the German Association for Post, Information Technology and Telecommunications (DVPT), is keeping the way open to legal proceedings against the post office for refunds. “We are in talks with lawyers about this,” said association chairman Klaus Gettwart.
In any case, the legislature must become active and re-regulate the procedure for postage approval. The association includes Deutsche Post’s major customers such as banks, insurance companies, health insurance companies and local authorities, who together account for 15 percent of the Group’s total postage revenue.
The verdict from Cologne could also encourage these companies to file a lawsuit against the most recent postage increase by Post in January 2022. At the turn of the year, the postal group raised the standard letter to 85 cents and some large letters in postage. Here, a period of one year after the increase came into force, as specified by the Cologne administrative court, has not yet expired.
Lawyers comment on this. The Berlin commercial law firm Raue is involved in the proceedings before the Cologne administrative court against the letter postage. The law firm represented the German pension insurance there. “I advise every postal customer to sue against the current postage,” said lawyer Kornelius Kleinlein from the Raue law firm.
The lawyer sees a violation of European law in the currently valid approval procedure for letter postage in Germany. “Even the approval of the current letter postage is illegal,” Kleinlein claims.
The post itself remains calm on the subject. “The decision of the Administrative Court of Cologne was to be expected after the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court of Leipzig in 2020 and therefore did not surprise us,” said a Post spokesman. At that time, the Federal Administrative Court complained about a formal error in the approval process.
“The legislature already created the required authorization basis last year and thus also confirmed the legitimacy of the rate approval procedure in the postal sector,” the spokesman continued. In this respect, the judgment of the Cologne administrative court has no effect on the current postage.
The topic is also causing trouble among representatives of private customers. “We urgently need a legally tenable regulation for increasing letter postage,” said Steffen Persiel, operator of the online comparison portal Paketda. The postal expert is counting on the new president of the responsible federal network agency, Klaus Müller, taking a “consumer-friendly attitude” towards the post office.
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