Romania’s Anti-trust Body Launches Probe into Posta Romana’s Price Discount Policy

“The Competition Council suspects a possible abuse of Posta Romana’s dominant market position by applying some tariff discounts [...]," the council’s president, Bogdan Chiritoiu, said in the statement.

The regulator also said it has extended an investigation, launched in 2006, of Posta Romana, over an alleged abuse of its dominant position, which may have affected the development of free trade between EU member states.

Posta Romana is the largest postal services provider in the EU member. It has a network of some 7,100 post offices countrywide.

Romania, through its Telecommunications Ministry, owns 75% of Posta Romana, and restitution fund Proprietatea owns the remainder. The state has postponed Posta Romana's privatisation several times over the past few years, arguing that the company needs to be restructured first.

In October 2007, Romania, together with another ten European Union-newcomers, was granted a two-year transition period, until the end of 2012, to remove the state monopoly in the postal services. Under an EU directive, the member-states have to liberalise their postal services by 2010.