The Italian Competition Authority has sanctioned Poste Italiane with over 20 million euros for an abuse of a dominant position in the market of the delivery of multiple ordinary mail items, that is to say those items that large business customers such as banks, insurance companies and telephone companies send to their customers (e.g. statements, expiry notices, bills).

In particular, the exclusionary strategy, implemented since 2014 by Poste Italiane to the detriment of competitors that entered this market following the liberalization of postal services, consisted in offering its end customers economic and technical conditions not replicable by similarly efficient competitors, which necessarily have to resort to the services of Poste Italiane for delivery in the country’s rural and less densely inhabited areas (so-called extra-urban areas), where only Poste Italiane operates. In addition, Poste Italiane has implemented a strategy to recover the volumes of mail entrusted to competition, using selective and loyalty rebates and conditions, among other things, influencing the discounts made to end customers for the exclusive handling of all items or a substantial part of them.

The investigation also ascertained that the anti-competitive strategy of Poste Italiane – a former monopoly that still holds a consolidated dominant position on the market in question - produced tangible effects on competitive dynamics; in fact, Poste Italiane succeeded in recovering numerous customers and further increased its market share, to the detriment of other postal operators active on the market.

During the inspection, the Authority made use of the collaboration of the Special Antitrust Unit of the Guardia di Finanza.

Rome, 15 January 2018