PostNL calls €7m fine for late deliveries “disproportionate”

Postal service PostNL has been fined nearly €7 million for failing to meet its target of delivering 95% of letters and parcels within 24 hours.

The consumer markets regulator ACM imposed the fine after just 89.5% of post was delivered on time in 2023.

PostNL has been struggling to recruit enough staff because of a labour market shortage, but the ACM said it was the company’s responsibility to meet its targets.

“People and businesses who use the postal service should be able to expect to get what they pay for,” ACM director Manon Leijten said.

Leijten added that the ACM had received large numbers of complaints from people who had had problems as a result of late deliveries.

“People who didn’t receive a bill and then have debt collectors at the door, or people who missed a summons to appear in court,” she said.

PostNL said the fine was “not suited to its purpose and disproportionate.”

The company is legally obliged to achieve its 95% target under the law that protects its status as a monopoly operator, but it last managed to do so in 2019.

The government has agreed to relax the rules from July 1 this year, allowing PostNL to deliver letters within two days rather than one. The minimum time will be extended to three days from the start of next year.

CEO Pim Berendsen said: “Given this background, this fine is not just incomprehensible but irresponsible. It goes against reality and will have the opposite of the intended effect.”