Post

Post refers to the economic activity of delivering letters and parcels. Community Law has liberalized postal activity with regard to parcels of a certain size, rapid mail having been the subject of competitive activity for a very long time, while exchanges which were carried out by letters take place today by digital or telephone communications.

However, postal activity is not moving towards the competitive model, in particular because the delivery of mail by the postman contributes to the social bond while the establishment of post offices is an element of regional planning.

But the obligation of national public posts, whatever the country, to have a very large number of post offices, to deliver letters daily, to have a stamp rate that only the State sets ( since we are in a pricing system and not a competitive price), puts these companies at risk. Successive reports on various positions have shown that these, by dint of being forced to meet public service obligations, to which the weight of their employees' pensions largely contributes, are threatened with bankruptcy.

In France, postal activities are regulated by ARCEP.