| | 32004L0017: u3-6Postal services    
| 32004L0017 - Utilities (3rd generation) | Article 6 | Article 6
Postal services
1. This Directive shall apply to activities relating to the provision of postal services or, on the conditions set out in paragraph 2(c), other services than postal services.
2. For the purpose of this Directive and without prejudice to Directive 97/67/EC:
(a) "postal item": means an item addressed in the final form in which it is to be carried, irrespective of weight. In addition to items of correspondence, such items also include for instance books, catalogues, newspapers, periodicals and postal packages containing merchandise with or without commercial value, irrespective of weight;
(b) "postal services": means services consisting of the clearance, sorting, routing and delivery of postal items. These services comprise:
- "reserved postal services": postal services which are or may be reserved on the basis of Article 7 of Directive 97/67/EC,
- "other postal services": postal services which may not be reserved on the basis of Article 7 of Directive 97/67/EC; and
(c) "other services than postal services": means services provided in the following areas:
- mail service management services (services both preceding and subsequent to despatch, such as "mailroom management services"),
- added-value services linked to and provided entirely by electronic means (including the secure transmission of coded documents by electronic means, address management services and transmission of registered electronic mail),
- services concerning postal items not included in point (a), such as direct mail bearing no address,
- financial services, as defined in category 6 of Annex XVII A and in Article 24(c) and including in particular postal money orders and postal giro transfers,
- philatelic services, and
- logistics services (services combining physical delivery and/or warehousing with other non-postal functions),
on condition that such services are provided by an entity which also provides postal services within the meaning of point (b), first or second indent, and provided that the conditions set out in Article 30(1) are not satisfied in respect of the services falling within those indents. |
| Case | Pte | Ref | Text | C-220/06
Asociacion Profesional de Empresas | 39-41 | S2-na [U3-6] | 39. As a preliminary point, it must be recalled that Article 7 of Directive 97/67 permits Member States to reserve some postal services for the provider(s) of the universal postal service to the extent necessary to ensure the maintenance of that service. Consequently, in so far as postal services are, in a manner consistent with that directive, reserved for a single universal service provider, such services are by necessity not subject to competition, given that no other economic operator is authorised to offer those services.
40. The fact remains that, as regards such reserved services, Community rules in the field of public procurement, which have as their principal objective the free movement of services and the opening-up to undistorted competition in all the Member States, cannot be applied (Case C26/03 Stadt Halle and RPL Lochau [2005] ECR I1, paragraph 44, and Case C340/04 Carbotermo and Consorzio Alisei [2006] ECR I4137, paragraph 58).
41. Therefore, the answer to the question referred must be that Community law must be interpreted as not precluding legislation of a Member State that allows public authorities to entrust, without regard to the rules governing the award of public service contracts, the provision of postal services reserved, in a manner consistent with Directive 97/67, to a public limited company whose capital is wholly state-owned and which, in that State, is the provider of the universal postal service. |
|
|
