Legal Framework

Our remit to regulate the postal sector comes directly from legislation, in particular from the Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Act 2011 (“2011 Act”), which transposed the European Postal Services Directive (97/67/EC) which established a regulatory framework for European postal services, into national law.

There are three categories of postal services which are subject to regulation under the 2011 Act.

1. Universal postal service – as defined by the Postal Act and ComReg regulation, which must be provided exclusively by An Post for the period to 2023 – Read More;
2. Postal services which fall within the scope of the universal postal service – they meet any one of the three criteria set out in section 37(1) of the Postal Act and by reference to ComReg’s guidelines; and
3. Postal services (Other) – a residual category comprising postal services that are not part of the previous two categories.

Some of the key pieces of legislation relevant to ComReg’s legislative remit for the postal sector are listed below. Click on any of these to be taken to that piece of legislation.