{"id":904,"date":"2018-10-05T16:30:57","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T15:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.competitionlawyers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=904"},"modified":"2018-09-26T10:24:54","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T09:24:54","slug":"royal-mail-competition-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.competitionlawyers.co.uk\/blog\/royal-mail-competition-fine","title":{"rendered":"Royal Mail competition fine"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Royal Mail competition fine has been issued in the sum of \u00a350m by the UK communications regulator for abuse of a dominant market position.<\/p>\n

Regulators Ofcom accused the Royal Mail of penalising wholesale customers over bulk mail deliveries for things like council tax demands and bank statements. They were fined for discriminating against a rival, Whistl, who were subject to contractual changes back in 2014.<\/p>\n

These changes included price increases that led to Whistl scrapping expansion plans that cost the business millions of pounds.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Whistl complaint leads to Royal Mail competition fine<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It was a complaint made by Whistl that led to the massive \u00a350m Royal Mail competition fine. Ofcom found that Royal Mail had increased prices for competitors who failed to reach \u201cvolume targets\u201d for the whole of the UK. This resulted in companies like Whistl, who used their own delivery workers in some parts of the country but relied on the Royal Mail in other parts, paying higher prices where they used the Royal Mail.<\/p>\n

The Royal Mail were found to have abused their dominant position in the mail delivery market to punish any competitor, like Whistl, who tried to use their own workers and compete with their bulk-delivery platforms.<\/p>\n

The impact of this was Whislt reportedly scrapping plans to extend their delivery services across the UK. It\u2019s understood that this led to a loss of some \u00a310m.<\/p>\n

Regulators speak out over Royal Mail competition fine<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Regulators Ofcom have spoken out over the Royal Mail competition fine. They have labelled the Royal Mail\u2019s behaviour as \u201cunacceptable\u201d and stated that the Royal Mail \u201cdenied postal users the potential benefits that come from effective competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigations found that the documents surrounding the change in pricing strategy were candid in their aim: it was to directly limit competition in the market from the likes of Whistl.<\/p>\n

Despite what appears to be an obvious abuse of a dominant market position, Royal Mail have refuted the decision, stating it is \u201cwithout merit and fundamentally flawed\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the face of the facts, it seems that the Royal Mail competition fine was entirely justified.<\/p>\n

No one can be allowed to breach vital competition law<\/strong><\/a> by abusing a dominant market position. Any company caught out engaging in behaviour that restricts or limits competition will see punishments like the Royal Mail competition fine fort their behaviour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Royal Mail competition fine has been issued in the sum of \u00a350m by the UK communications regulator for abuse of a dominant market position. Regulators Ofcom accused the Royal Mail of penalising wholesale customers over bulk mail deliveries for things like council tax demands and bank statements. They were fined for discriminating against a … Continue reading Royal Mail competition fine<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40,23],"tags":[15,35,28],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-dominance-abuse","category-pricing","tag-competition-law","tag-market-abuse","tag-pricing"],"yoast_head":"\nRoyal Mail competition fine - 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