Brussels, 14/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has approved the creation, by the national public postal operators The Post Office (TPO) of the United Kingdom, TNT Post Group NV (TPG) of the Netherlands and Singapore Post Private Limited (SPPL) of Singapore, of two joint ventures with activities throughout the world on the international mail market. Called Delta and NewCo, these two joint ventures will provide international mail services and, to a limited extent, outbound cross-border parcel services. Delta will operate world-wide with the exception of the Asia Pacific region, which could have exerted a dominant position on the British and Dutch outbound cross-border markets. The Commission came to the conclusion after a detailed four-month inquiry that the operation would not pose any problems of competition for the United Kingdom. The parties will hold relatively high market shares there for international business mail, but there are a certain number of other actors on the market that hold sizeable shares, mainly the consolidators - which are companies that collect mail and subsequently negotiate special rates with PPOs or with local delivery companies in order to distribute the "consolidated" mail in the country of destination - and third country postal operators. Furthermore, the Commission noted that the barriers on the British market were relatively low and that the market is relatively transparent, with TPO prices and rebates publicly available.
The indepth inquiry, on the other hand, has confirmed the Commission's concern regarding the market for outbound cross-border business mail in the Netherlands. The Dutch market has fewer operators than the British market, all relatively small. Only the TPO has managed to obtain a relatively high market share of the outbound traffic to the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the Dutch market lacks transparency and TPG could favour Delta, thus further aggravating the competitive situation facing other operators, and as a result eliminating the competition between TPG and TPO.
In order to remedy these concerns, the parties undertake to divest the business that is currently undertaken by TNT International Mail in the Netherlands (TNT IM Netherlands). This is the part of TPG in the Netherlands that was originally intended to be contributed to the Delta joint venture. The Commission has agreed to the concession, but takes the view that the success of the remedy depends to a large extent on the characteristics of the purchaser, in particular whether it will be able to generate sufficient volumes and have access to a cost efficient network such that it will be able to sell its outbound cross border mail services at prices that are comparable to those which TNT IM Netherlands is currently able to offer. The parties have therefore proposed finding an up-front buyer and to await approval from the Commission before carrying out their project.