Deutsche Post Opens Online Post Office, Wins Ruling Involving UPS
Deutsche Post, the German postal service, said yesterday that it has opened a personalized, online post office at www.deutschepost.de/efiliale.The site includes ordering and delivery services for stamps, letters and parcels. In addition, the site's Info Center lets customers access free services such as searching for post offices and ZIP codes or download forms from the Web site into their PCs.
The site was developed by Art Technology Group Inc., Cambridge, MA, a developer of online customer relationship management applications.
ATG said these services are enabled by the commerce and relationship management features of the ATG Consumer Commerce Suite that also will let Deutsche Post centrally manage relationships with consumers and small- to medium-sized businesses that perform postal transactions online.
In other news, the European Court of Justice yesterday rejected charges by United Parcel Service that Deutsche Post's purchase of DHL International violated European Union fair trade legislation.
UPS, Atlanta, sought to stop the purchase of DHL, arguing it gave Deutsche Post a dominant position in the express mail delivery market.
"UPS has not proved any abusive practice on the part of Deutsche Post on the reserved letter market," the court said. The court also ruled that the German company did not use profits made from its national postal monopoly to fund the DHL purchase.
UPS has two months to decide on an appeal of the decision.
