Main regulatory developments

Postal regulations

In March 2020, the Dutch minister of Economic Affairs and Climate published proposed amendments on the Postal Law, but discussions in parliament were put on hold. In July 2023, the minister informed parliament in general terms on the progress of tightening up the proposed amendments, focusing on a clear division of roles between the ministry and the Dutch regulatory authority (the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets, ACM) regarding the continuity of the USO, the protection of end users, and the access conditions for other postal operators.

Following the fall of the cabinet on 7 July, in September 2023 the Postal Law was declared controversial. Given the economic developments since the Ukraine war (such as high cost increases and the developments in the labour market) and the ongoing volume decline, it is necessary that parliamentary proceedings on this legislation will continue. Furthermore, it is important that the secondary legislation is also adjusted, in order to be able to adapt to ongoing market developments. PostNL will start to discuss this with the ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate.

Social legislation changes in the Belgium Postal Law recently came into effect. The new law imposes a joint liability from 7 January 2024 for contractors, such as PostNL, and direct subcontractors, such as delivery partners of PostNL, on various topics regarding social and labour laws. The framework law also imposes a minimum tariff between a contractor and a subcontractor, obliges market parties to implement a time registration for parcel deliverers, and foresees the introduction of a coordinator within all operators that has to focus on health and safety. These parts of the law need to be worked out in royal decrees and are expected to be implemented during the course of 2024 and 2025. With regard to the new rules around joint liability, PostNL already regularly reviews the compliance of delivery partners on several relevant social laws and will take additional measures if necessary in line with the upcoming royal decrees. Going forward, PostNL will closely monitor the developments of the royal decrees and comply with new legislation when it takes effect.

The European Commission (EC) is preparing a market development study for the postal services sector which should provide policy recommendations on the future USO, competition in the sector, environmental and social issues, and digitalisation. We contributed to this process by participating in a workshop and a survey on identifying megatrends that impact developments in the sector. The study is expected to be finalised in 2024 and will most likely contain recommendations to the new European Commission (2024-2029) for adjustments of the EU Postal Services Directive (PSD).

UPU

In October 2023, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) adopted a new strategy for 2026 - 2029 aimed at increasing innovation, sustainability, and financial inclusion of the postal sector.

Additionally, several resolutions were adopted on various topics, including the requirement for all UPU member countries to offer a mandatory inbound product with tracking features. This will create a global product that is available to all consumers and businesses worldwide who want to track their items. Another significant resolution was adopted that will change the registration (signing) service to only apply to items containing documents. The new strategy and resolutions will assist in modernising the postal sector and making it more relevant to the needs of both consumers and businesses. It will also help to ensure that the postal sector continues to play a vital and sustainable role. PostNL welcomes these developments.

Competition

Consolidation / Sandd

After the decision of ACM (September 2019) not to grant a license for the acquisition of Sandd, which PostNL has appealed, the state secretary of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy approved the acquisition by PostNL in September 2019, after which the acquisition took place in October 2019. The appeal of PostNL against ACM’s decision of September 2019 has been continued after the annulling on appeal by the CBb in June 2022 of the decision of the state secretary.

In September 2023, the court declared PostNL’s appeal unfounded. In response to the court decision, ACM stated that because it is a unique situation as the integration took place several years ago, it wants to discuss the consequences of the ruling with all the market participants involved. ACM stated it will focus on monitoring the quality of postal delivery. PostNL has started an appeal against the court decision at the CBb. The decision of ACM and the court’s ruling contain a number of deficiencies that may be relevant in the future. PostNL wants to get more clarity on these matters.

Quality of delivery

The Postal Decree 2009 prescribes a next day delivery level of 95% for consumer mail, funeral announcements and medical mail. PostNL is required to report these scores yearly to ACM. Not being able to meet the 95% quality requirement results in potential financial exposure to an ACM fine.

For funeral announcements and medical mail we delivered on target in 2023, achieving a level rounded to the 95%. Since 2022, the performance of the overnight service has been increasingly affected by the tight labour market across the Netherlands. In 2023, we achieved 89% for next-day delivery. We will continue our efforts to increase the quality of service. For the years 2019, 2021 and 2022, procedures are ongoing. In those years, next-day delivery was below target, due to circumstances beyond our control, such as the Covid pandemic and the impact of the tight labour market. For 2019, ACM imposed a fine. That decision is under appeal at the CBb. In February 2024, ACM imposed a fine for 2021. PostNL studies the decision and examines possible legal actions. For 2022 the ACM decision is still pending.    

Spotta

PostNL and Kiesjefolders submitted enforcement requests to ACM against Spotta, following Spotta’s decision to start its own delivery service of personalised flyer packages. PostNL and Kiesjefolders argued that Spotta is a postal transport company and should register with ACM. As a registered postal transport company Spotta would be required to adhere to specific obligations under the Postal Law, for example that 80% of delivery personnel must work based on an employment contract. ACM concluded Spotta is not a postal transport company and does not need to register, because it delivers items on the instructions of receivers. According to ACM, the chain of activities that qualify as postal transport starts with receiving addressed postal items from senders. PostNL appealed this decision because the activities of Spotta are comparable with other postal transport companies. PostNL wants to keep mail accessible, affordable and reliable for everyone. It is therefore important, especially in a shrinking postal market, that there is a level playing field.

Labour

Focus on social legislation

Over the past few years, the Dutch labour inspectorate has found several breaches of the Foreign Nationals Employments Act (Wet Arbeid Vreemdelingen) at a few of PostNL’s delivery partners. Based on the findings, the labour inspectorate imposed several fines on PostNL, stating that through the chain of responsibility, PostNL is also accountable. This despite PostNL not being the legal employer of the employees concerned.

PostNL has filed objections against the labour inspectorate decisions, the proceedings of which are still ongoing. That does not alter the fact that PostNL strives to always comply with applicable laws and regulations. In light of these cases, we have started implementing additional improvement measures in the check-in process of new employees of delivery partners and ourselves, and started entry checks at several large locations. In 2023, we continued to improve the developments in this area and expanded the scope of the measures across our operations. PostNL also implemented measures with regards to employment agencies. All measures are based on the principle of correct registration of new workers via internal and external checks and daily checks before the work starts. The labour inspectorate has announced that it will pay more attention to the safe and healthy working environment. This is also at the heart of PostNL’s strategy to invest in our people and enhance employee engagement and health & well-being.

PostNL already has several measures in place to ensure a safe and healthy working environment, such as working instructions and tools to reduce the physical load. Additionally, we continually investigate and test new measures and tools to make improvements. In December 2023, PostNL was informed by the labour inspectorate of its intention to impose a requirement of compliance regarding parts of the sorting process of parcels. This process is highly automated but requires physical work at a few parts. The labour inspectorate found that potential risks to health from working with heavy parcels had not been properly identified. PostNL was already in the process of taking additional measures and shared its view on the intended compliance requirement with the labour inspectorate.

In Belgium, the labour inspectorate filed several criminal cases against (among others) PostNL Belgium in 2022, regarding alleged breaches of applicable social laws and regulations of delivery partners. The expected final court session in the criminal cases will take place in Q2 2024, followed by a judgment. In 2022, the investigative judge initiated a criminal investigation into PostNL, which has not yet been finalised. We are still conducting daily checks at the entrances of our facilities and regularly review the compliance of delivery partners on several relevant social laws regarding their company and parcel deliverers.

Minimum wage

In the Netherlands, the statutory minimum wage was increased significantly at various moments in 2023. An initial increase of 10.15% was implemented on 1 January 2023. The regular biannual indexation on 1 July 2023 (3.15%) and 1 January 2024 (3.75%) were higher than in previous years, as the wages in the collective labour agreements increased more. Additionally, a new law came into force on 1 January 2024 that introduces a statutory minimum hourly wage instead of a statutory minimum monthly wage. This has a significant cost increase impact on PostNL. A further increase to the minimum wage of 1.2% on top of indexation is expected as of 1 July 2024, but this needs to be formalised in law. Minimum wage per 01-01-2024 increased by 22%-29% compared to 31-12-2022, depending on the collective labour agreement, resulting in higher costs of €40 million - €45 million in 2024 compared to 2023. We expect 18,000 employees from across the company to benefit from this.

Environmental

PostNL is committed to reducing the environmental impact of its activities. Our main focus is on climate change mitigation by significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from our own operations and our outsourced activities. Because governmental policies at all levels can help or hinder our efforts in reaching our sustainability goals, we maintain regular contact with different governmental stakeholders on the impact and effect of these measures aimed at stimulating the green transition. However, it remains uncertain whether government funding for climate investment in the coming years will be made available by the new, and still to be formed, government.

Because of the weight of electric trucks, due primarily to the heavy battery, drivers would normally need to be in possession of a truck drivers license. However, a temporary exemption is in place until 1 July 2024. A revision of the EU Driving License Directive might incorporate a permanent solution on this issue. This directive is still under negotiation. 

The Belgian federal government has introduced two legislative initiatives around the greening of the parcel sector. The first, which was approved in December 2023 by the council of Ministers, is an executive decree which imposes additional reporting obligations on postal operators on several environmental indicators, such as the average (carbon) footprint of each delivery mode (average emission, km, % green fleet and energy) on postal operators’ websites. PostNL is aware of the new obligations and already reports on several of the indicators. Whether this is sufficient is not yet known as we are still waiting for the regulator to develop detailed reporting methods.

The second initiative is a bill that obliges e-retailers to propose a minimum of two delivery methods, one of which has to be sustainable. Exact requirements and the timing of this bill are not yet known. The impact of this bill on PostNL will be determined as soon as the requirements and timing are made public.

ACM has announced that one of its focus areas for 2024 is dealing with misleading sustainability claims. PostNL fully agrees with the importance of being transparent on its own goals and achievements regarding sustainability.

CSRD

The European Commission (EC) has put forward several new legislative proposals as part of their ongoing efforts to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050, boost the economy through green technology, create sustainable industry and transport, and cut pollution.

At the end of July 2023, the EC adopted the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) that should be used by all companies subject to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). These standards cover the full range of environmental, social, and governance issues, including climate change, biodiversity and human rights that PostNL needs to report on. PostNL is preparing for the implementation of CSRD, which is formally required from financial year 2024.

Green claims

There is a new proposal for a directive on how to use voluntary B2C Green Claims on products and services such as ‘CO₂ neutral’ or ‘sustainable’. The proposal is expected to be finalised by mid-2024. It prescribes criteria that need to be met for Green Claims, with the Claims requiring ex-ante verification by a third party. When communicated, any Green Claim needs to be accompanied by a URL or QR-code explaining the Claim.

The proposal on Green Claims should be looked at in conjunction with the proposal on empowering consumers in the green transition, which is also expected to be finalised by mid-2024. This proposal is aimed at banning the use of generic environmental claims without proof of recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim, as well as claims based on emissions’ offsetting schemes that a product has neutral, reduced or a positive impact on the environment.

Packaging waste 

The EC also proposed new rules on the reduction of packaging and packaging waste, aimed at reducing packaging by 15% by 2040, compared to 2018. New targets are proposed on re-use, refill, recycled content, labelling, and packaging minimisation. As PostNL is offering packaging and packaging materials to its customers, we are working on integrating these new standards into our packaging solutions.

Count Emissions

Also relevant is the proposal of a new regulatory common framework to calculate and report transport-related GHG emissions for the entire transport chain (including last-mile delivery). It establishes a methodological framework for any entity, such as PostNL, that wants to disclose information on GHG emissions from transport services, which will have to adhere to the Count Emissions EU rules. Once finalised, the regulation will apply no sooner than 2028.

Other regulatory developments

Revision of the Union Customs Code

The EC has proposed significant changes to the Union Customs Code (UCC), aimed at modernising customs processing across Europe to better deal with the significant increase in e-commerce, a fast-growing number of EU standards that must be checked at the border, and shifting geopolitical realities and crises. These challenges should be addressed by modifying existing IT systems and introducing new IT systems, simplifications to the current customs legislation, a more uniform application of customs controls, and a fully-fledged analysis and coordination capacity at EU level.

PostNL is currently examining the impact of the proposal, but welcomes the modernisation of these rules while asking for recognition of the differentiated nature of postal traffic and USPs within the EU, operating as part of a single global postal territory, governed by the UPU. Aim is that most of the new rules will have to be implemented from January 1st 2028 onwards. The more complicated new requirements, like the EU Customs Data Hub and the Trust & Check Trade status will have to be operational in 2037 according to the current proposal which is still under discussion.

Network and Information Security Directive (NIS2)

NIS2, which came into force in January 2023, aims to enhance the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure and digital service providers in the EU. This updated legislation expands the scope of companies covered, reinforces incident reporting requirements, and introduces new obligations to implement security measures. The impact on PostNL involves adherence to stringent security measures and intensified incident reporting protocols. This necessitates a focus on ensuring robust protection against cyber threats to uphold the integrity of services provided. In recent years, we have invested heavily across the organisation to strengthen our digital capabilities, and cybersecurity and compliance are key issues both internally and externally. In 2023, we continued to strengthen our capabilities and our capacity to ensure we remain highly resilient if and when a cyber attack occurs.​

NIS2 must be implemented into national law by October 2024. An online consultation on this legislation was planned for the summer of 2023, but was postponed until January 2024. The aim is still to meet the mandatory implementation deadline. Meanwhile, there is a call to proactively prepare to align with forthcoming regulatory obligations and ensure cybersecurity measures are in place, despite the consultation delay. PostNL has a detailed security roadmap that includes compliance with NIS2. PostNL aims to be compliant with NIS2 at the end of 2024.