Today, the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland has made a decision on the request for action submitted by Suomen Suoramainonta Oy (SSM) concerning Posti’s operations in the unaddressed mail delivery services market. According to the decision by the Supreme Administrative Court, Posti’s pricing concerning the delivery of unaddressed advertising mail is not in violation of the competition law.
Suomen Suoramainonta Oy submitted a request for action to the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) already in 2007 by claiming, for instance, that Posti acts contrary to the competition law by setting excessively low prices for unaddressed advertising mail delivery.
Between 2007 and 2013, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority investigated Posti’s pricing and procedures concerning the unaddressed direct delivery services market and made a decision on the matter on June 25, 2014, announcing that there is no evidence of operations by Posti that would be against the competition law.
Afterwards, Suomen Suoramainonta Oy lodged an appeal with the Market Court against the FCCA’s decision. The Market Court partly left uninvestigated and partly dismissed the SSM’s appeal on January 26, 2016. After this, Suomen Suoramainonta Oy appealed further to the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland. The Supreme Administrative Court has now reviewed the appeal and made a decision on the matter today by dismissing the appeal lodged by the SSM. The Supreme Administrative Court considers that there are no grounds for altering the end result of the decision made by the Market Court. The Supreme Administrative Court’s decision is final.
