Royal Mail has won a dispute with logistics company Whistl, according to a preliminary judgement from UK communications watchdog.
Earlier this year, regulator Ofcom was asked to intervene in the dispute over whether Royal Mail, which is part of International Distributions Services PLC (LSE:IDS), could charge for access rights to its letter delivery network.
Under the UK access regime, Royal Mail is required to offer access, on reasonable request, to its postal network for bulk mail “fair and reasonable terms, conditions and charges”.
Whistl has requested a tracked large letter service from Royal Mail but has raised concerns about the terms offered, including that it tried to pass certain costs associated with the access requirement onto Whistl.
In its provisional judgement issued on Tuesday afternoon, Ofcom said it concluded that "Royal Mail can pass on the costs of complying with its obligations" under clause USPA 5.3 of the access rules to Whistl.
"In our view, compliance with USPA 5.3 is an integral part of providing an access service and therefore it is fair and reasonable for the costs to secure compliance with USPA 5.3 to be considered as part of the costs of providing the service," the regulator said.