05.07.2022

The tool developed by the European Commission to enable the interested persons to find out how much it cost them to send a postal parcel to and from any European Union Member State is now available in Romanian as well. Thus, the users may learn by accessing the app available here the price they have to pay for the delivery of a domestic or cross-border parcel within the EU, in keeping with its type and weight, as they have access to the tariffs charged by the providers active on the postal market at national level who have the obligation to report these prices.

The app for checking the parcel delivery price

The app was developed upon the enforcement of the Regulation on cross-border parcel delivery services, adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in 2018 to foster competition by improving the price transparency for these services.

The regulation requires that providers with 50 or more employees, as well as providers established in more than one EU country, provide their respective national regulatory authority with domestic and cross-border prices for up to 15 basic parcel delivery services (in certain cases, national regulatory authorities may have used a threshold of 25 employees to take into account certain conditions in their country). In Romania’s case, the set threshold requires that the providers with more than 50 employees, as well as those established in more than one EU country to submit their prices for the services under the Regulation. Based on the reports of the national regulatory authorities, the European Commission aggregates and publishes the prices applied by the providers in the app meant for the postal users across the Union.

The published tariffs are applicable as of 1 January, do not include VAT and are updated every year on 31 March. The published prices are reported in the national currency and in euros. The exchange rate applied by the European Central Bank on 31 March is used for the conversion to euros.

Note! The displayed price reported by a provider for a parcel delivery service may include certain conditions and restrictions. In many cases, the characteristics of a parcel delivery service may differ from one provider to another.

Regulation on cross-border parcel delivery services

The Regulation adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, available for consultation here, came into force on 22 May 2018 and contributes to the better market functioning, by ensuring a more efficient and consistent oversight of the parcel market. The Regulation pursues improving the price transparency, in view of reducing the unjustified price gaps, as well as the tariffs paid by individuals and small and medium sized enterprises, especially those from remote or sparsely populated areas.