01/15/2019 01:40 PM CET

The federal network agency has sent us today for purpose of comment its draft decision on the aggregation of services as well as proposed pricing metrics ('Vorgabe von Maßgrößen') for the price-cap regime of mail items of up to 1000 grams as of January 1st 2019. This decision is foreseen to be valid until December 31st 2021. The final decision of the federal network agency is expected for mid-March 2019.

According to the draft decision, Deutsche Post AG should be allowed a pricing headroom of 4.8% as of April 1st 2019 on the basket of products that are subject to the price-cap regime.

Should this become the final decision the allowance to increase prices over that period would be lower than expected. To achieve the profits targets of the Post & Paket Deutschland division on this basis additional cost reduction measures would be required.

Should political bodies make modifications to the regulatory framework relevant to the price-cap regime, Deutsche Post AG would be allowed to apply for the execution of a new review by the federal network agency ahead of the end of the term of the now upcoming decision.