In response to a referral submitted by France Messagerie [1] on 1 September 2020, today Arcep is issuing its opinion on the technical, pricing and contractual terms and conditions the company has been applying since 1 July 2020.
France Messagerie must eliminate its “group” discount
In its opinion dated 6 February 2020 [2], Arcep laid out a number of observations and requests regarding Presstalis technical, pricing and contractual terms and conditions.
Arcep notes that France Messagerie, which has taken over Presstalis’s business, has by and large kept the structure and main characteristics of the pricing schedule applied by Presstalis.
Despite making some progress, such as eliminating “welcome” discounts, the technical, pricing and contractual terms and conditions are unsatisfactory. In particular, France Messagerie planned a discount (referred to as a “volume” discount in its technical, pricing and contractual terms and conditions), which is similar to the group discount that Arcep asked Presstalis to eliminate in its opinion of 6 February.
As a result, considering that this discount is not justified by efficiency gains, and runs counter to the Bichet Act’s objectives of diversity and pluralism, Arcep is requiring the company to eliminate its group discount within two weeks of having been notified of this opinion.
France Messagerie has two weeks to provide further details on its 2020 pricing schedule
In addition, Arcep is requesting that France Messagerie provide it with detailed information on its pricing and underlying costs structure within two weeks of having received notification of the opinion, and to complete the publicly available information on its website with details on the services it provides and the associated technical and contractual terms and conditions.
2021 technical, pricing and contractual terms and conditions – which must be communicated to Arcep two months before they come into effect – must encompass every service
The technical, pricing and contractual terms and conditions that France Messagerie plans on applying in 2021, provided they are approved, must encompass all of the services that the company supplies to print media publishers, and be submitted to Arcep two months before they come into effect. France Messagerie must also provide a description of the logistics flow involved in routing “intra-zone”, “extra-zone” and “printing plant direct” services.
[1] Pursuant to Decision No. 2020-0683 RDPI of 19 June 2020.
[2] Arcep press release of 10 February 2020
Associated document
• Arcep opinion n° 2020-1159 (published on 3rd November 2020)