Estonia, Legislation, Post Office, Transport

According to Sven Suurraid, Director General of Express Post, the volume of letters declines by 20-30% each year, and expenses of the postal service keep growing.

Aavo Kärmas, Board Member of Eesti Post, predicts that the prices will start rising soon.

Both companies say a merger would have created synergy in the fixed costs, which would have had the potential to resist a rise in service prices, reports LETA.

According to Competition Authority official Svetlana Ljutova, the decision to prevent the merger was made to prevent the elimination of competition as a result of the deal.

As reported, the Competition Board did not grant a permission for Estonian Post’s plan to buy the postal enterprise Express Post from the media groups Ekspress Group and Eesti Meedia.

The enterprise had hoped to earn more than two million euros from the transaction.

Express Post with more than 600 employees that is involved with home delivery of print media outlets is owned in equal parts by Ekspress Group and Eesti Meedia.

Ekspress Group had justified its decision to sell the enterprise with the fact that it wishes to focus more on electronic media.