Failure to deliver certified letters, the Antitrust fine the Italian post office: “Serious damage to the judicial system”

The Italian Competition Authority imposed a fine of 5 million euros on Poste Italiane, the maximum allowed by law, “for having adopted an unfair commercial practice in violation of the Consumer Code, consisting of promotion, which turned out to be misleading, the characteristics of the registered delivery service and the digital collection service for certified mail “.

Post, antitrust investigation for undelivered certified letters

In particular, the Authority “found that the attempted delivery of certified letters is not always carried out at the time and with the certainty that are highlighted in the advertising messages, but that, moreover, it is frequently carried out in ways other than those prescribed by law. In fact, Poste Italiane sometimes uses for convenience the deposit of the notice of stock of the registered letter in the mailbox even when it would have been possible to deliver it to the addressee “.

DAMAGES TO JUSTICE

In fact, the Authority points out, inefficiencies in the delivery of certified letters cause “serious damage to the country’s justice system due to delays due to incorrect notifications in carrying out trials, especially criminal ones, with the consequent prescription of numerous crimes.” An issue that – it is explained – has been raised several times in the Annual Reports on the state of justice. The severity of the problem, writes the Agcm in the chapter on acquired tests, is attested by the systematic negative performance of the efficiency of deliveries. La Poste, for example, had for 2019 “a monthly national goal of without hesitation more than 20% always exceeded by approximately 3% – 5%”. An internal document shows that during some sample months (January, July, August, September and October 2019) in some offices, undelivered letters amounted to approximately 40%. Possible? Hard to believe. And the antitrust in particular recalls “some reports received from disabled people who, due to their disability, are forced to always stay at home.”

THE STRANGE COINCIDENCES

The Agcm also questions the practices with which Correos has handled the problem. The company would have limited itself to preparing a standard letter in response to complaints about the issuance of the stock notice despite the presence of the recipient at home, who limited itself to confirming the regularity of the delivery. And in case of repeated complaints, it would have been limited to “mere reminders” to local officials for the “reestablishment of correct procedure”.

A sample test carried out between 12 and 22 January 2020 at the South Naples distribution centers, Matteotti, Mergellina, Vomero, Soccavo and the external GSP agency would confirm the systematic nature of the “non-delivery” of registered mail . “In a significant number of cases, the Agcm writes: products that could not be delivered to the same address (and therefore assigned to the same postman) are shown below the box dedicated to the” date of the stock notice “On the same day and at the same time, with a degree of precision to the second, to print the notice.” A singular coincidence that would have been repeated for 3,000 deliveries in 10 days.

A NON-DIFFERENT PENALTY

Correos defended itself against the accusations, noting in particular the extremely low number (compared to the total volume of complaint deliveries) and the fact that many of the clients of the recommended service were companies and therefore not consumers in the strict sense. However, the antitrust has decided – “given the extreme gravity and frequency of the practice and the considerable harm caused to consumers” – to impose the maximum penalty on the company which “however is not dissuasive in relation to the specific turnover generated by Poste Italiane in 2019 alone equal to 3,492 million euros “.