The market for cross-border parcel delivery is complex. Parcel delivery service providers (‘providers’) offer different services and prices for the delivery of a parcel depending on specifications, including its weight, size, format and destination.
Rules to enhance regulatory oversight and improve pricing transparency of cross-border parcel delivery services were adopted by the European Council on 12 April 2018 (‘rules’). The rules should benefit the environment and broaden opportunities for providers, particularly given the growing European online market.
The rules will apply to providers who have at least 50 people working for them and parcels that weigh less than 31.5kg and have as their smallest dimension 20mm.
A national regulatory authority (‘authority’) will be established in each Member State and providers will submit two summaries to this authority.
The one-off summary will include: company details, description of the services and terms and conditions for the parcel delivery services.
The annual summary will include: annual turnover with breakdown, number of people working by employment type, number and direction of deliveries and any publicly available price list applicable on 1 January each year which will be published online by the Commission each year.
If the provider does not comply with these rules, the authority will impose a penalty. What this penalty will be is yet to be determined.
We will monitor the impact of Brexit on these rules.