Belgian regulator rejects bpost's proposed stamp tariff increase

[POSTMAN]

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Belgium’s postal regulator BIPT has decided not to approve bpost’s proposed stamp tariff increase for 2017.

This means that the stamp tariffs remain unchanged this year.

In a statement sent to Post&Parcel today (29 March), bpost said that it “regrets” BIPT’s decision, which it believes is “contrary to Belgian and European Union law”.

“Furthermore,” said bpost, “the decision-making process is clearly not in line with the European ‘better regulation’ directives. The company is therefore examining this decision in detail and will take all possible legal steps to fight it.”

bpost maintains that the proposed price increase is “legally and economically justified” and also “reasonable, in light of, among other things, inflation and the further expected fall in mail volumes”.

Hammering the point home, bpost said that its proposed prices “far below the maximum increase permitted by the legal price cap formula used to assess affordability” and also below the European average.

Although the stamp tariff increase was rejected, bpost increased its tariffs for other domestic postal products on 1 January this year. As a result, tariffs across all domestic mail products rose by around 1.5% on average for 2017.