According to paragraph 7 of article 57 of the Postal Law, the Price Convention, concluded on 10 July 2008 between ICP-ANACOM and CTT, remains temporarily in force, as far as the universal service, as defined by the Postal Law, is concerned, until ICP-ANACOM establishes the criteria governing the setting of prices of the universal service (as provided for in paragraph 3 of article 14 of the Postal Law).
Paragraphs 5 and 6 of the same article lay down that all obligations established in the universal postal service concession (Concession) remain in force, unless they are incompatible with the regime approved by the Postal Law, being incumbent on the Government to amend the Concession according to the regime laid down in this Law.
The price proposal submitted by CTT, as regards non reserved services, is thus assessed in the light of the following rules of the referred Price Convention:
a) None of the services covered by CTT’s proposal are subject to any price-cap, given that these services are fully liberalised under the Postal Law1;
b) CTT must report to ICP-ANACOM, in writing, the price of each postal service comprised in the universal service, in accordance with the rules of this Convention, with an advance notice of at least 30 working days from the date of entry into force thereof (paragraph 1 of article 5);
c) CTT must disclose the prices for each of the services pertaining to the universal service at least 10 working days in advance of the respective date of entry into force, through the appropriate means for the provision of information both to users in general and to the respective market segments (paragraph 6 of article 5);
d) ICP-ANACOM is entitled to shorten the time-limits provided for in the previous two paragraphs, upon reasoned request submitted by CTT (paragraph 7 of article 5);
e) The pricing system of services integrating the universal service complies with the principles of cost orientation, transparency and non-discrimination. The principle of cost orientation is applied progressively, so as to allow for a gradual rebalancing of tariffs and to ensure the affordability of prices (paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 2);
f) Prices of non-reserved services take effect on the date provided for, ICP-ANACOM being entitled to determine changes to those prices at any time, which must be duly reasoned on the basis of compliance with the above-mentioned principles, and taking also into account the levels of quality of service achieved (paragraph 5 of article 5)2;
g) CTT are entitled to apply discounts and special prices on prices of services, where economic reasons, namely those related to economies of scale, so justify. Such discounts and special prices apply in compliance with the principle of cost orientation, taking into account the avoided costs compared to the standard service providing all operations concerning acceptance, sorting, transport and distribution of postal items, as well as with the principles of transparency and non-discrimination towards all customers who meet the same requirements and conditions (paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 7).
h) CTT is further obliged to publish in an appropriate manner, including by making available in a specific address of CTT’s website, and to regularly supply users with information on the conditions for the application of tariffs covered by the Convention as well as on the respective discounts [point c) of paragraph 3 of article 2].
It should also be referred that the uniform tariff principle (provided for in the Price Convention) does not apply, as it is not directly imposed under the Postal Law. On this subject, this Law, in its article 14, paragraph 8a), lays down that this Authority may determine, for duly substantiated reasons relating to the public interest, that the price of postal items weighting less than 50g complies with the uniform tariff principle, a uniform tariff being applied throughout the national territory, without prejudice to the right of universal service providers to conclude with users individual agreements on special prices. This principle has not been imposed so far by ICP-ANACOM.
1 Services which were previously reserved, up to 26 April 2012, corresponding to postal items weighing up to 50g insofar as their price was lower than 1.18€, were subject to a price-cap (provided for in article 8 of the Price Convention). With the entry into force of this new Postal Law, these services are no longer reserved, and are now governed by rules of the Price Convention concerning non-reserved services.
2 There is also in this situation an amendment as regards services which were previously reserved. When reserved, their prices were subject to an ex-ante regulation, ICP-ANACOM being allowed 15 working days to oppose their entry into force, if the Authority so wished, duly justifying its decision in the light of compliance with tariff principles and with the referred price-cap (paragraph 3 of article 5 of the Price Convention).
