Dispute between Mail Competition Forum and Royal Mail concerning notified price rises for access services

Ofcom’s access regime requires Royal Mail to offer access, on reasonable request, to its postal network for bulk mail. This allows other parties to collect and sort bulk mail (mail sent in large volumes, typically by big organisations) before handing it over to Royal Mail for delivery. 

Royal Mail has commercial and operational flexibility to set the terms, conditions and charges of its access services, subject to some important safeguards (see the Universal Service Provider Access condition “USPA”). These include requirements on Royal Mail to provide access on fair and reasonable terms, conditions and charges.

This matter concerns a dispute between Mail Competition Forum (“MCF”) on behalf of 17 Access Customers (organisations which use Royal Mail’s network via the access regime, “the Referring Parties”) and Royal Mail in relation to price changes notified by Royal Mail on 23 July 2026. The changes were contained within Contract Change Notice 129 (“CCN 129”) and are due to come into effect on 5 October 2026.

The dispute relates to the level of the proposed price rises, including in light of the previous price increase in January 2026.

Ofcom considers that on the face of the referral, there appears to be a dispute between the parties that commercial negotiations have failed, or are otherwise unable, to resolve.

Ofcom considers that there is an access dispute between the parties within the meaning of Schedule 3, paragraph 13 of the Postal Services Act 2011. Ofcom further considers that the dispute meets the relevant statutory criteria, and it is appropriate for Ofcom to handle it according to the Act. Accordingly, Ofcom has accepted to handle the dispute for resolution. 

Scope of the dispute

After consideration of the submissions received from MCF and Royal Mail, the scope of the dispute is to determine:

1. Whether the price changes notified by Royal Mail in CCN 129 constitute fair and reasonable terms, conditions and charges in accordance with access conditions USPA 3.1A and 3.1B.

Procedural matters

In line with Ofcom’s Guidance on the resolution of disputes published in June 2011, Ofcom is not consulting on the scope of this dispute. Ofcom’s guidelines can be found at: Ofcom's Guidelines for the handling of regulatory disputes (PDF, 276.7 KB) and the supplement to Ofcom’s guidelines for the handling of postal disputes can be found at: Dispute Resolution for postal disputes (PDF, 50.7 KB). In accordance with the guidelines, Ofcom intends to issue its decision on this dispute within four months.

Ofcom's decision to accept and handle a dispute does not in any way indicate that Ofcom has reached any view as to whether any party has or has not breached any regulatory obligations.