Published in the D.R. no. 66 (Series III), of 18 of March 2004.
Ministério da Economia
ANACOM - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações
Universal Postal Service Price Convention entered into between ICP-Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações e CTT-Correios de Portugal, S.A.
Between the following contracting parties:
a) ICP - AUTORIDADE NACIONAL DE COMUNICAÇÕES, hereinafter referred to as ANACOM;
b) CTT - CORREIOS DE PORTUGAL, S.A., hereinafter referred to as CTT,
the Convention is hereby accepted and agreed, pursuant to article 14 of Law no. 102/99, of 26 July, with the amendments that were introduced by Decree-Law 116/2003, of 12 June, and by Clause 24 of the Universal Postal Service Concession Agreement, signed on the 1st of September 2000, this last one with the amendments that were introduced on the 9th of September 2003 thereto, which will be governed by the following articles:
SECTION I
Scope, principles and definitions
Article 1
Scope of the Convention
This Convention governs and defines the rules that will have to be considered when establishing the prices of the services pertaining to the universal postal service provided by CTT covering the following services:
a) Reserved postal services;
b) Non-reserved postal services pertaining to the universal service.
Article 2
Principles
1 - The pricing system of the services covered by this Convention complies with the principles of cost orientation, transparency and non-discrimination and tariffs uniformity.
2 - Within the scope of the universal postal service provision, the application of the principle of cost orientation is carried out progressively, so as to allow for a gradual balance of the tariffs and to ensure the accessibility of prices.
3 - In order to ensure compliance with the principles foreseen in the previous paragraphs, CTT undertake:
a) To maintain a cost accounting system that will allow for the calculation of the costs associated with each service and, within a service, the costs associated with the several service rendering forms and the costs associated with the different production process stages (acceptance, processing, transportation and distribution);
b) To introduce changes to the cost accounting system, in accordance with the reasoned recommendations of ANACOM, namely the ones arising out of the audits made to the cost accounting encouraged by this Authority;
c) To adequately publish and to regularly supply to users information on the tariffs application conditions as well as on the respective discounts.
Article 3
Definitions
For the purposes of this Convention, the following terms will have the respective meanings set opposite, as follows:
a) Concession Agreement ? universal postal service concession agreement entered into between the Portuguese State and CTT, on the 1st of September 2000, pursuant to Decree-Law no. 448/99, of November 4th, with the contractual amendments introduced thereto on the 9th of September 2003, pursuant to Decree-Law no. 116/2003 of June 12th;
b) Postal Parcels ? small packages containing merchandises or objects with or without commercial value, which weight does not exceed 20 Kg;
c) Sending of Correspondence ? written communication in a physical form of any nature and intended to be transported and delivered at the address stated in the object itself or in its wrapping, including addressed publicity;
d) Postal deliveries ? includes sending of correspondence, books, catalogues, newspapers and other periodical publications and postal parcels;
e) Postal Service ? the activity composed of acceptance, processing, transportation and distribution operations of postal deliveries;
f) Universal Postal Service ? a postal service including sending of correspondence, books, catalogues, newspapers and other periodical publications up to 2 Kg in weight and of postal parcels up to 20 Kg in weight, as well as a service consisting of registered mails and a delivery service with declared insured value, both at national and international level;
g) Reserved Services ? services exclusively provided by the universal service provider including the provision of the following services:
- Postal service including sending of correspondence, including addressed publicity, being carried out or not through fast distribution, which price will be lower than three times the public tariff for sending first weight step correspondence of the fastest standardised category, provided that its weight is lower than 100 gr., both at national and international levels;
- Postal service including sending of registered correspondence and correspondence with declared insured value, including legal summons and notice services by mail, within the same price limits and weight referred to in the previous paragraph of this definition, both at national and international levels;
h) Non-reserved services contained in the Universal Postal Service ? include the provision of the following services:
- Postal service for sending correspondence, including addressed publicity, carried out or not through fast distribution, which weight will be equal or higher than 100 gr. not exceeding 2 Kg or, whenever its weight is lower than 100 gr., its price will be equal or higher than three times the public tariff for sending first weight step correspondence of the fastest standardised category, both at national and international levels;
- Postal service for sending books, catalogues, newspapers and other periodical publications up till 2 Kg in weight, both at national and international level;
- Postal parcel service up till 20 Kg in weight, both at national and international level;
- Postal service of registered mail and mail with declared insured value, including legal summons and notice services by mail, which weight will be equal or higher than 100 gr. or its price equal or higher than three times the public tariff for sending first weight step correspondence of the fastest standardised category, both at national and international level.
i) Tariffs ? price list applicable during a certain period of time for the use of the services contained in the Convention and related to the different service rendering methods;
j) Discounts and special prices ? price reduction contained in the tariffs in force, pursuant to article 7;
k) IPC ? inflation expected for each year which is officially foreseen by the Government and, as such, referred to in the State Budget Report for each year. Should a break be referred to in such document, the average point of that break will be considered. Should technical difficulties arise when calculating that value, namely as far as interpretation is concerned, or a significant deviation (never lower than 10%) between that value and the estimate published by Bank of Portugal in the Economic Bulletin of June, it is the responsibility of ANACOM, upon request of CTT, to provide the necessary clarification or change for purposes of no. 1 of article 8.
SECTION II
General pricing rules
Article 4
CTT obligations
1 - CTT are committed to comply with the rules contained in this Convention, and cannot, notwithstanding the provisions of article 6, practice prices higher than the ones arising out of the application of those rules.
2 - The application of price variation established for the reserved postal services depends on the compliance with the quality of service levels contained in the Quality of Service Convention.
Article 5
Application of prices
1 - CTT must report in writing, at least 20 working days in advance as from the date of its entry into force, to ANACOM, the prices of each postal service contained in the universal service, in accordance with the rules of this Convention.
2 - CTT must send to ANACOM, together with the report referred to in paragraph 1, a document showing that the maximum price variations allowed under the terms of this Convention are complied with and that the tariff principles set out in paragraph 1 of article 2 are met.
3 - Should ANACOM fail to approve the reserved services prices, reported under the terms of paragraphs numbers 1 and 2, they should notify CTT of its decision and respective basis, within 15 working days as from the reception date of the report foreseen in paragraph number 1.
4 - The reserved services prices shall come into force on the foreseen date, provided that ANACOM does send a report stating the contrary within the deadline referred to in paragraph number 3.
5 ? The non-reserved services prices shall come into force on the foreseen date and ANACOM is entitled to decide at any time on changes to any of those prices, duly reasoned, as to compliance with the tariff principles set out in article 2 and taking into account as well the quality of service levels met.
6 - The prices for each of the services pertaining to the universal service must be disclosed by CTT at least 5 working days in advance as from the respective date of entry into force, through the appropriate means to the information of most users and the respective market segments.
7 - ANACOM is entitled to reduce the deadlines foreseen in paragraphs 1 and 6, upon reasoned request by CTT.
Article 6
Adaptation of Conventional Prices to the Specific Quality of Services
1 - CTT are entitled to practice prices higher than the ones arising out of this Convention provided that the respective services are rendered with requirements of higher quality, specificity or functionality than the ones that CTT usually provide.
2 - The prices referred to in the previous paragraph should be established in accordance with the principles contained in paragraph 1 of article 2 and in accordance with the pricing rules contained in article 5.
Article 7
Discounts and Special Prices
1 - CTT are entitled to practice discounts and special prices over the prices of the services covered by this Convention, whenever justified by reasons of economic nature, namely related to economies of scale.
2 - The application of these discounts and special prices should meet the principle of cost orientation, taking into account the avoided costs related to the standardised service that offers all the provisions of acceptance, processing, transportation and distribution of postal deliveries, as well as the principles of transparency and discrimination for all customers who meet the same requirements and conditions.
3 - CTT must send to ANACOM the discounts and special prices list applicable to the services of this Convention, which shall be enclosed to the price reporting referred to in paragraph 1 of article 5.
4 - The provisions of article 5 shall rule the application of those discounts and special prices.
SECTION III
Reserved Postal Services
Article 8
Price Regime
1 - The weighed average variation of the reserved postal services prices cannot be higher than IPC-0.5%, in nominal terms, for each enforcement year of this Convention.
2 - The price of a postcard cannot be higher than the one for the 1st weight step letter of standardised format.
3 ? The weighed average variation is calculated using the weighing factor of each reserved postal service price variation, in its several formats and weight steps, the proportion of the gross invoicing being associated with each format and weight step, in the total amount of the gross invoicing of the reserved postal services, both related to the second calendar year before the one for which the variation is calculated.
Article 9
Types of Services
1 - For purposes of application of the pricing rules contained in article 8, the following types of postal services shall be considered, covered by subsection g) of article 3, in its several formats, weight steps and provision methods:
a) Postal service for sending correspondence under Priority Mail/Correio Azul and Non-priority Mail/Correio Normal as well as Correio Económico Internacional;
b) Postal service for sending correspondence of addressed publicity under Direct Mail;
c) Postal service for registered mail and declared insurance value mail;
d) Legal summons service and notices by mail.
2 - Should CTT change or create new types of postal services, its inclusion in the price regime contained in article 8 must be agreed between the parties, being subject to an addendum to this Convention.
3 - For the purposes of the provisions of last paragraph, change or creation of new types of postal services must previously be reported to ANACOM.
Article 10
Compliance with the quality of service levels
1 - Price variation foreseen in article 8 depends on the compliance with the quality of service levels fixed in the Universal Postal Service Quality Convention.
2 - Failure to comply with the quality of service levels referred to in the previous paragraph shall affect the price variations foreseen in article 8, pursuant to the percentages contained in the Universal Postal Service Quality Convention, and shall affect the prices in the subsequent year.
3 - Incompliance arising out of the application of the previous paragraphs shall be checked by ANACOM, CTT being heard.
4 - The quality of service levels referred to in paragraph 1 shall be evaluated in accordance with the quality indicators established in the Quality Convention.
SECTION IV
Non Reserved Postal Services contained in the universal service
Article 11
Price Regime
1 ? Price determination applicable to the non-reserved services contained in the universal service is the responsibility of CTT, ANACOM being responsible for the supervision of these prices under the terms foreseen in paragraph 5 of article 5.
2 ? Creation or change, by CTT, of the non reserved service modalities contained in the universal service, must be reported to ANACOM at the time of the communication of the respective prices pursuant to paragraph 1 of article 5.
Section V
Final provisions
Article 12
Calculation of deadlines
1. It is the responsibility of ANACOM to verify if the document referred to in paragraph 2 of article 5 of this Convention is duly reasoned. Should ANACOM consider that the document submitted by CTT clearly doesn?t provide the required basis, ANACOM will have to inform CTT of this fact within five days as from the reception date of the document. In these cases, the deadline referred to in paragraph 3 of article 5 shall be calculated as from the reception date of the new reasoned document.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of last paragraph, calculation of the deadline foreseen in paragraph 3 of article 5 is suspended on the reception date by CTT of a request for clarification or additional data, by ANACOM, and shall only be reinitiated on the day that follows the one of the reception of the CTT?s reply.
Article 13
Communications
1 - Communications foreseen in article 13 shall be made in writing and:
a) Hand delivered provided that evidenced by protocol, or;
b) Sent by fax, provided that evidenced by "uninterrupted transmission report", or;
c) Sent by registered mail with notice of receipt.
2 - For the purposes of this Convention, the following shall be considered the registered office of the contracting parties as well as the addresses and fax reception machines:
a) ANACOM:
address - Av. José Malhoa, n.º 12, 1099 - 017 Lisboa
Fax: 21 721 10 02;
b) CTT:
address - Rua de São José, n.º 20, 1166 - 001 Lisboa
Fax: 21 322 77 34;
3 - The contracting parties are entitled to change the registered offices referred to in the previous paragraph, previously notifying the other parties.
4 - The foreseen communications are considered delivered:
a) On the day when they were hand or fax delivered, provided that during the period of time between 09.00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., or on the following working day if not during this time period;
b) On delivery date to the addressee contained on the notice of receipt;
c) Within one working day as from the date contained in the registration, whenever the delivery date to the addressee is not subject to determination, namely, for omission, illegibility or loss of the notice.
Article 14
Resolution of disputes
Any possible disputes arising out between both Contracting Parties as to the execution, interpretation, application or integration of this Convention and all decisions given thereto shall be resolved under the terms foreseen in the Concession Agreement.
Article 15
Term
1 - The term of this Convention shall start on the date of its signature, being valid until 31 December 2005 and renewable for periods of two years, except as otherwise terminated by any of the parties at least 60 days in advance as from the end of its term.
2 - Should the Convention be terminated, the prices arising out from it will continue in force, until the prices arising out of the rules established in a new Convention will come into force.
Lisbon, 20th of January 2004
ICP - AUTORIDADE NACIONAL DE COMUNICAÇÕES
CTT - CORREIOS DE PORTUGAL, SA
