Bundesnetzagentur unable to monitor postal delivery times for the time being

Specifically, this concerns a so-called delivery time review involving 60,000 test letters per year. This is to be carried out by an independent market research company. The Bundesnetzagentur is therefore not permitted to issue a contract for the time being for a so-called delivery time review involving 60,000 test letters per year.

The background to the legal dispute is a failed tendering process: "Im Vergabeverfahren zur Erhebung von Daten hatte die Post ein Marktforschungsunternehmen als nicht unabhängig ausgeschlossen." The authority justified the exclusion on the grounds of a lack of independence. The company sued against this and prevailed.

Court ruling from Düsseldorf

The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf ruled in the final instance in favor of the market research company. The supervisory authority lost a legal dispute before the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf in the final instance. The court assessed the exclusion as disproportionate and stated that potential conflicts of interest could be addressed through informational barriers.

As a consequence of the ruling, the Bundesnetzagentur intends to "unter Berücksichtigung der Vorgaben des Vergabesenats eine neue Ausschreibung konzipieren." A new tendering process is, in the authority's assessment, unlikely to be completed before 2027. Since the verifications must cover a full calendar year, they could start no earlier than 2028.

Statutory quotas and postal statement

The Bundesnetzagentur has the statutory mandate to monitor the postal service regarding letter delivery times. It checks whether Deutsche Post complies with the statutory quotas. These quotas are 95 percent of letters that must be delivered within three working days, and 99 percent within four working days.

According to Deutsche Post, these requirements are currently being met: "2025 übertraf die Post diese Quote nach eigenen Angaben mit 97,4 Prozent." The company also points out that it must expect sanctions in the event of violations. "Bei Fehlverhalten drohen dem Konzern Bußgelder." However, the Bundesnetzagentur cannot impose such fines for the time being without the external review.

Political reactions

The authority stated that Deutsche Post's own company data were insufficient for independent monitoring. It requires data from a market researcher commissioned by it. The company that has now been excluded, however, already carries out other delivery time measurements for Deutsche Post, which, according to the court, does not constitute grounds for exclusion.

There has been political criticism of the resulting gap. Sebastian Roloff, economic policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, called for a swift new tendering process: "Es braucht jetzt schnellstmöglich ein neues Vergabeverfahren". He justified this with the need for reliable data: "Wir brauchen die Daten, um die Einhaltung der gesetzlichen Vorgaben überprüfen und gegebenenfalls parlamentarisch nachsteuern zu können."

The underlying documents from the Bundesnetzagentur were made available to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). The report was broadcast on July 5, 2026 on the Deutschlandfunk program. The extent of the monitoring gap in the years 2025 to 2027 depends on the progress of the new tendering process.