Royal Mail's participation in competitive tenders
Competitive tendering – which was non-existent in the former mail monopoly market – has become accepted practice now the market is fully competitive.
Postcomm does not wish to preclude Royal Mail from winning or retaining business awarded by competitive tenders, but it is important that the market has confidence that it is not acting anti-competitively or taking unfair advantage of its size and dominance of the market to gain business.
Royal Mail’s licence requires it to:
- publish its prices after it has won a contract
- refrain from anti-competitive practices
- offer prices which are within the limits of its 2006/10 price control.
The guidance published in March 2007 sets out the detail of these arrangements.
More background on Postcomm's role as regulator of Royal Mail.
Related documents:
- 26 March 2007 - guidance notes
- Guidance from the Postal Services Commission on Royal Mail's licence and competitive tenders (pdf, 286KB).
- 26 March 2007 - decision document
- Guidance from the Postal Services Commission: Royal Mail’s Participation in Competitive Tenders (pdf, 501KB).
- 26 March 2007 - news release
- Postcomm guidance on Royal Mail participation in competitive tendering.
- 16 October 2006 - consultation responses to July 2006 consultation
- response from Postwatch (pdf, 31KB) and response from Mail Competition Forum (MCF) (pdf, 36KB).
- 11 October 2006 - consultation response to July 2006 consultation
- response from Royal Mail (pdf, 89KB)
- 11 July 2006 - consultation document
- Guidance from the Postal Services Commission: Royal Mail's participation in competitive tenders (pdf, 103KB).
- 11 July 2006 - news release
- Postcomm explains Royal Mail's tendering procedures.
