Business letter pricing, 2011

On 25 January 2011, Australia Post provided the ACCC with a draft price notification proposing to increase the prices of a number of its reserved services, to become effective on 4 July 2011.

Australia Post proposed to increase Regular PreSort letter prices by an average of 2.8 cents (GST exc) and Off Peak PreSort letter prices by an average of 1.3 cents (GST exc). Australia Post also proposed an average increase to Clean Mail prices of 2.3 cents and an increase to the Reply Paid annual fee from $65 to $80.

As part of its draft price notification Australia Post did not propose increasing the basic postage rate (BPR) or the prices of other Ordinary letters.

The ACCC released an issues paper seeking submissions from interested parties on Australia Post's proposal on 25 February 2011. The ACCC received eight submissions in response to this issues paper.

On 16 May 2011, Australia Post provided a revised proposal which reduced the size of the proposed price increases for certain Off Peak services. Under the revised proposal, the average price increase for Off Peak would be 0.9 cents (GST exc).

On 27 May 2011, the ACCC released its preliminary view on Australia Post's proposed price increases. The ACCC's preliminary view was to not object to Australia Post's revised proposal submitted on 16 May 2011. The ACCC sought interested parties' views on this preliminary view. The ACCC received three submissions in response.

On 3 June 2011, Australia Post submitted a price notification to the ACCC under subsection 95Z(5) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. In this price notification, Australia Post was seeking the same price increases as proposed in its revised proposal submitted in May 2011.

The ACCC has decided to not object to the price increases in Australia Post’s price notification.