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.
See below list of declared Parcel Delivery Service Providers:
| Parcel Delivery Service Providers ("PDSPs") |
|---|
| An Post |
| DHL |
| DPD |
| Fastway |
| Fedex Express |
| GLS |
| UPS |
Parcel delivery service providers that fall within the scope of regulation in Ireland are asked to make ComReg aware of this by emailing postreg@comreg.ie.
Parcel delivery service providers should also advise if they have had, on average, more than 50 persons working for them and involved in the provision of parcel delivery services over the previous calendar year.
The European Commission issued the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1263 of 20 September 2018 establishing the forms for the submission of information by parcel delivery service providers pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/644 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
To secure transparency of tariffs all cross-border parcel delivery service providers are required to provide, by 31 January of each calendar year, the national regulatory authority in their jurisdiction with a public list of tariffs applicable on 1 January of each calendar year for 15 categories of services (set out in the Annex to the Regulation 2018/644).
The tariffs of cross-border parcel delivery service providers are entered onto a web portal created by the European Commission. There is a user’s manual available to assist in entering this information (Read More >>>). In case of any questions related to the registration on this portal or to its use, please email postreg@comreg.ie.
Each national regulatory authority must submit the list of tariffs to the Commission who publishes them on their website – see: Public tariffs on cross-border parcel delivery services.
This enables postal service users and undertakings with an easily accessible overview of services available in the market and their prices. Price information is updated every year on 31 March.
Based on the public lists of tariffs obtained in accordance with Article 5 of the Regulation, the national regulatory authority shall assess the cross-border tariffs submitted by providers to which applies the obligation of general (universal) services if they consider them unreasonably high. This assessment is done by the national regulatory authority in accordance with Article 6 of the Regulation and with guidelines stipulated by the European Commission.
For more information see the website of the European Commission.
For more information on ComReg’s assessment of An Post’s cross- border single piece parcel tariffs
For more information on other Member State’s published non-confidential assessments, please refer to the below link: