PostNL has been fined 2 million euros for failing to deliver enough mail on time in 2019. This has been done by the supervisory authority of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). announced on Thursday. Regular mail that must be delivered within a day between Tuesday and Saturday was late in 5.66 percent of the cases, while the law allows a maximum of 5 percent. PostNL was often enough on time for medical and funeral mail, which also has to be delivered on Mondays.
PostNL objects to the fine. Company speaks of „force majeure”, because it had to deal with problems in Sandd’s network after the acquisition of Belgian competitor Sandd in 2019. It had to take over the delivery of part of the Sandd mail, because the Sandd network was no longer able to deliver large quantities of mail. Due to legal restrictions on the acquisition, PostNL was not sufficiently aware of the operational state of affairs at Sandd, the group said.
ACM does not agree with the force majeure argument, “because it has not been shown that PostNL anticipated any problems at Sandd adequately”. The regulator also points out that since 2014 there has been a downward trend in the percentage of letterbox mail delivered on time. In 2019, it fell below the legal minimum for the first time. Because PostNL decided after the takeover to process large quantities of bulk mail sent via Sandd via its own network, too much of the mail was delivered too late in 2019, according to the regulator.
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PostNL took over the Belgian company Sandd in 2019. Both postal companies were in dire straits at the time and there was a lot of criticism at the time of the takeover, which made PostNL a virtual monopolist in the postal market. The ACM stated that ‘monopolies are almost always bad for people and companies’. The then State Secretary for Economic Affairs Mona Keijzer (CDA) nevertheless granted the permit for the takeover, which she defended in the House of Representatives last year. According to her, the takeover was ‘crucial’ for affordable and reliable postal delivery in the Netherlands.