Dutch postal regulator ACM found that PostNL held significant market power (SMP) on the Dutch 24h bulk mail market. To address alleged competition concerns, ACM imposed regulation, which mandated PostNL to open its delivery network to competitors at a cost-based access tariff, undermining PostNL’s business model. PostNL projected that the regulation would have a negative impact on its profitability of approx. 50 million euros per year.
We assisted PostNL’s appeal through expert reports on market definition, competition concerns, and welfare impact assessment. We found that ACM’s market definition was incorrect, meaning that PostNL did not in fact hold SMP. Furthermore, we discovered that ACM’s alleged competition concerns could be addressed with less intrusive remedies and found that, correcting for mistakes in ACM’s welfare impact assessment, the regulation would lead to a negative welfare impact.
We assisted PostNL in successfully appealing a significant market power (SMP) decision, which imposed cost-based access on Dutch 24h bulk mail markets. The tribunal annulled the SMP decision, citing the fact that ACM’s (the Dutch postal regulator) market definition had been incorrect, as documented in our reports.
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