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PostEurop Letter to DG GROW on e-commerce

Date

06 Mar 2024

Sections

Transport

Brussels, 6 March 2024

 

Ref: EFR,BS/024/6/jv

Customer satisfaction related findings of the IPC Cross-Border E-Commerce Shopper Survey 2022 PostEurop comments on the ERGP Report on the application of the Cross-Border Parcel Regulation

 

Dear Ms Clausen,

By means of this communication, PostEurop would like to share with you interesting and important

customer satisfaction related findings of the IPC Cross-Border E-Commerce Shopper Survey 2022

(please see the attachment to this letter).

The survey covers 23 EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK (please see

slide #2 of the report for more details on the methodology). The survey shows very high levels of

customer satisfaction with respect to delivery cost, parcel tracking, delivery speed and location, returns

and complaint handling:

- 60% of respondents were extremely/very satisfied with delivery cost and 83% at least somewhat

satisfied while only 6% were dissatisfied.

- 62% of respondents were extremely/very satisfied with tracking when purchasing from another

European country (and 87% of Europeans were at least somewhat satisfied with tracking).

- Over half of European e-shoppers buying from another European country were extremely/very

satisfied with the delivery speed.

- 70% were extremely/very satisfied with the delivery location and 56% with the returns.

- 74% were satisfied with the complaint handling when purchasing from another European country.

The findings of this survey show that EU cross-border e-commerce is functioning well and enjoys high

levels of consumer satisfaction.

We would also like to take the opportunity to comment on the “ERGP Report on the application of the

Cross-Border Parcel Regulation”, published in June 2023, and described by ERGP as an “early input” to

the 2nd evaluation report of the Cross-border parcel Regulation, due in late 2024.

The ERGP Report notes that:

“even though a significant number of NRAs has conducted tariff assessments since 2019 ...most of

them have concluded that there was no evidence of tariffs being, in fact, unreasonably high”.

In fact, over the period 2019 to 2022, NRAs from only 5 Member States have found tariffs deemed to be

unreasonably high. In 2022, this concerned only 2 Member States.

Moreover, the ERGP Report states that:

“the fact that some tariffs were concluded to be unreasonably high did not seem to have a significant

impact on accessibility to the service in question”.

 

This was because either these tariffs were nonetheless considered affordable or because of the

availability of similar services at a lower price. These findings are particularly relevant as they provide

evidence that the instruments currently in place are more than sufficient, thus challenging the ERGP

reports’ conclusion that a clear need exists for more regulatory tools or that tariffs are not likely to go

down in case the future Regulation does not foresee the appropriate competencies for the NRAs. On the

contrary, the findings of the report itself suggest that the market and existing regulatory tools generally

prevent unreasonably high tariffs.

We hope this information is of interest for you and we remain available for any clarification or additional

data you may need.

Best regards,

 

Ms Elena FERNÁNDEZ-RODRÍGUEZ

Chairwoman of the BoD

 

Mr Botond SZEBENY

Secretary General

 

In copy to:

Ms Agnieszka SKONIECZNA, Head of Unit Investment Conditions and Public Services, DG GROW

Ms Christelle DEFAYE-GENESTE, La Poste Groupe, Chair of PostEurop European Union Affairs Committee

Mr Achim SCHRÖDER, Deutsche Post, Chair of PostEurop E-Commerce Working Group

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