The Postal Rate Commission has unanimously ordered the U.S. Postal Service to turn over by Friday afternoon most of the so-called “highly sensitive commercial” information about the USPS’s international operations that PRC wanted.
The Commission issued the order less than 24 hours after the USPS said it wanted to keep information about its Post Electronic Courier Service (Post E.C.S.), a Internet-based document delivery service for direct marketers and others, secret.
Disclosing that information, the USPS claimed, would result in commercial harm to itself, Canada Post, France’s La Poste, its partners in the service, and International Post Corp. the service’s computer software provider and seriously affect the postal service’s ongoing negotiations.
United Parcel Service of America Inc. and the Coalition Against Unfair USPS Competition (CAUUC) are challenging the legality of the service, contending the USPS has been offering it on an experimental basis since last July without the permission of its Board of Governors and the PRC.
On Monday when the USPS was supposed to provide the information under a Feb. 17 order, it tried to avoid turning the data over to the PRC, especially its contracts with Canada Post and La Poste, saying that to do so would give competitors (UPS, Federal Express Corp., and the Coalition) “access to prices charged among the parties involved in the development and operation of the service.”
The USPS was ordered to provide information about the operation and use of Post E.C.S.; an exact count and location of its users; the percentage of domestic and international transmissions; whether Post E.C.S. is being offered “as a substitute for Express Mail or any other service,” and how much mail, if any has been diverted from Standard A (formerly third class) Mail, first class mail, Express Mail, and other services.
The PRC did not say what action it would take against the USPS if it did not receive the information by the Friday deadline.
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