The Post has a “different legal opinion” when it comes to validity
It is a judgment against which Swiss Post is still appealing, but the decision can clearly be described as a clear defeat for the group. The Regional Court of Cologne found that Swiss Post is putting consumers at an unreasonable disadvantage if it limits the validity of digital stamps to 14 days. The clause in the General Terms and Conditions is thus declared invalid.
The judges follow the arguments of consumer advocates who had filed a lawsuit against the Post’s practice. “After a period of 14 days, the post office simply keeps the money for postage codes that have already been paid for but not yet used, without providing anything in return,” said Jana Brockfeld, the legal officer at the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv), in one statement Statement after the verdict. “This extreme shortening of the statutory limitation period of three years is illegal.”
Swiss Post’s arguments unconvincing
As the association writes in the analysis of the judgment, the company had argued, among other things, that the limited validity of the digital stamps was necessary because of the limited number of characters. Here, however, the judges come to a different opinion when they do the calculations: If Swiss Post only used digits for the codes, there would already be 100 million different combinations. However, the eight-digit postage codes also contain letters, so the company has many more possible combinations at its disposal.
The Post also wanted to argue in court that the limited validity was necessary to prevent abuse. The court also does not see this as a sufficient argument to justify the discrimination against customers. Accordingly, it is Swiss Post’s responsibility to design its system in such a way that codes cannot be used more than once. In the next step, the Cologne Higher Regional Court must now decide on the appeal.
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