Market

Postal services are regarded as services of general economic interest and are very important to commercial users and retail consumers alike. The markets for postal services are dynamic, and they have developed rapidly in connection with the constantly growing markets for communication, advertising and electronic commerce.

The primary objective of the European Union as well as the Austrian legislature is to realize the single market for postal services and at the same time to ensure the high quality of universal services in this sector. For this reason, postal services are being opened to competition in a gradual and controlled process. The main goal of this policy is to improve service quality and in particular to ensure short delivery times and comfortable access to services.

The European legal framework (and thus also the full liberalization of the postal service sector in Austria) was implemented in the Postal Market Act (PMG), which went into effect on January 1, 2011.