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Market Regulations and USO in the Revised Swiss Postal Act: Provisions and Authorities

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Postal and Delivery Innovation in the Digital Economy

Part of the book series: Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy ((TREP,volume 50))

Abstract

New postal legislation in Switzerland entered into force on October 2012. It encompasses a new Postal Act as well as a new Postal Organization Act. The reform of the Postal Act covers three main areas. The first is market regulation, which applies to all operators symmetrically. It includes the replacement of the former licensing system by compulsory registration and provisions on ex-post regulation of mutual access to PO boxes and address data. Second, it restates the definition of the Universal Service Obligation (USO), with different provisions for services offered to private and business customers and distinguishing between the accessibility of postal and financial services. Third, the new Postal Act defines a new institutional design, i.e. the division of tasks, organization and responsibility of public authorities in the postal sector. The Postal Organization Act governs Swiss Post’s range of activity, its corporatization and the spin-off of its financial services branch PostFinance.

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Correspondence to Christian Jaag .

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Jaag, C., Maegli, M. (2015). Market Regulations and USO in the Revised Swiss Postal Act: Provisions and Authorities. In: Crew, M., Brennan, T. (eds) Postal and Delivery Innovation in the Digital Economy. Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy, vol 50. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12874-0_23

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