28th Jul 2015 06:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK media and communications regulator Ofcom on Tuesday said it has issued a statement of objections to postal service operator Royal Mail PLC, with a provisional view that the company breached competition law by discriminating in its wholesale pricing against postal operators that competed with it on delivery.
Ofcom said the provisional findings, part of the investigation launched following a complaint by Whistl Ltd, a former competitor of Royal Mail, found that Royal Mail's changes to prices, terms and conditions for the provision of access services included "unlawful price discrimination".
More specifically, Ofcom said, the wholesale prices charged by Royal Mail for bulk mail delivery services contained different pricing which meant that, in practice, higher access prices would be charged to customers that competed with Royal Mail than for those which did not.
Ofcom has alleged that the higher access prices would act as a disincentive against entry into the delivery market, increasing the barriers to expansion for postal services operators seeking to compete with Royal Mail.
The regulator said Royal Mail will have the chance to respond to the statement of objections before any final decision is made.
In response Tuesday morning, Royal Mail said it was "disappointed" by the regulator's announcement and added it takes its compliance obligations "very seriously".
Royal Mail said it is carefully considering Ofcom's findings and will submit a "robust" defence to the watchdog in due course. It added it has cooperated fully with Ofcom throughout the probe and will continue to do so.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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