Under Regulation (EU) 2018/644 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on cross-border parcel delivery services, there is an obligation on some “parcel delivery service providers” to provide certain information to the Commission for Communications Regulation (“ComReg”) which is then passed to the European Commission. This is the only regulation on Parcel Delivery Service Providers.
In Regulation 2018/644 the term “parcel delivery service provider” is defined as meaning “an undertaking that provides one or more parcel delivery services with the exception of undertakings established in one Member State alone, that only provide domestic parcel delivery services as part of a sales contract and as part of the contract personally delivery goods that are subject of that contract to the user”.
“Parcel delivery services” are defined as meaning “services involving the clearance, sorting transport and distribution of parcels”.
Parcel is defined as meaning “a postal item containing goods with or without commercial value, other than an item of correspondence, with a weight not exceeding 31.5kg”.
As per recital 17 of the Regulation, providers of parcel delivery services using alternative business models, for example those drawing on the collaborative economy and e-commerce platforms, should be subject to this Regulation if they provide at least one of the steps in the postal delivery chain. Clearance, sorting and distribution, including pick-up services, should be considered parcel delivery services, including when they are provided by express and courier service providers, as well as consolidators, in line with current practice. Transport alone that is not undertaken in conjunction with one of those steps should fall outside the scope of parcel delivery services, including when it is carried out by subcontractors, either in the context of alternative business models or not, as it should in that case be assumed that this activity is part of the transport sector, unless the undertaking concerned, or one of its subsidiaries or linked undertakings, otherwise falls within the scope of this Regulation
This Regulation does not apply to undertakings that are established in only one Member State.
You are asked to make ComReg aware of this by emailing postreg@comreg.ie.
Please also state if you had, on average, more than 50 persons working for you and involved in the provision of parcel delivery services over the previous calendar year.
If you had on average more than 50 persons working for you over the previous calendar year in the provision of parcel delivery services, there is certain information you will need to provide to ComReg, namely;
Please also see ComReg Information Notice 18/107
Further information is also available on our ‘Information Obligation for Parcel Delivery Service Providers’ web page.