Tax office reports PostNL to competition watchdog

The Dutch tax office (Belastingdienst) has alerted the consumer and markets regulator ACM to “alleged market distortion” by PostNL, after a tender to deliver four years of government post collapsed in a dispute over delivery times.

According to documents seen by the Financieele Dagblad, the tax office told ACM that PostNL had blocked smaller postal companies from competing for the contract. The retender is expected to cost €210 million more than the original estimate of just over €456 million.

The four-year contract covers post for more than 100 government bodies – including blue tax envelopes, traffic fines and driving licence correspondence – and runs to 260 million items a year, almost a fifth of PostNL’s annual postal volume.

The original tender collapsed in December after the Belastingdienst insisted on two-day delivery while PostNL refused to commit. From 1 July, PostNL will be allowed two days to deliver consumer post instead of one, rising to three days from July 2027. Business mail will also stretch to three days.

A Belastingdienst spokesperson confirmed to the FD that no formal enforcement request had been filed. But documents seen by the paper show the tax office argued that PostNL’s “significant market power” was undermining access to public contracts, and that since the company absorbed rival Sandd in 2020 there is “practically speaking a monopolist” in Dutch postal delivery.

PostNL called the suggestion of market distortion “objectionable” and blamed contradictory state demands – looser rules for consumer mail, tighter ones for business mail. It said it has been invited to bid in the retender.

ACM declined to comment. The regulator is also reviewing the Sandd merger after a Rotterdam court ruled in 2020 that ministers were wrong to approve it, and fined PostNL almost €7 million earlier this month for missing 2023 delivery targets.