Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Act 2011

PART 2

Regulation of Postal Services

Chapter 1

Interpretation and general

Interpretation (Part 2).

6.— (1) In this Part—

“access point” means any box, receptacle or other facility, including post boxes, provided for the public either on the public road or at a post office, where postal packets, or any class of postal packets, may be deposited with a postal service provider by senders for transmission by post;

“Act of 1983” means the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983 ;

“authorisation” means an authorisation to provide a postal service pursuant to section 38 ;

“addressee”, in relation to a postal packet, means the person to whom it is addressed;

“clearance” means the operation of collecting postal packets by a postal service provider for transmission, including to places outside the State;

“Commission” means Commission for Communications Regulation;

“cross-border mail” means mail from or to another Member State or from or to a third country;

“Directive” means Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of the internal market of Community postal services and the improvement of quality of service, as amended;

“distribution” means the process from sorting of postal packets at the distribution centre to delivery of postal packets to their addressees;

“enactment” has the meaning assigned to it by the Interpretation Act 2005 ;

“mail bag” includes any form of container or covering in which postal packets in the course of transmission by post are enclosed by a postal service provider for the purpose of conveyance, whether or not it contains any such postal packets;

“post box” means any receptacle provided by a postal service provider for the purpose of receiving postal packets, or any class of postal packets, for transmission by post;

“post office” includes any house, building, room or place used, whether exclusively or otherwise, for the provision of a postal service by a postal service provider;

“postage” means the sum chargeable for the transmission of postal packets;

“postal network” means the system of organisation and resources of all kinds used by a universal postal service provider for the purposes, in particular, of—

(a) the clearance of postal packets,

(b) the routing and handling of those postal packets from the access point to the distribution centre, and

(c) the distribution to the addresses shown on postal packets;

“postal packet” means an item addressed in the final form in which it is to be carried by a postal service provider and includes a letter, parcel, packet or any other article transmissible by post;

“postal service provider” means any person providing one or more than one postal service;

“postal services” means services involving the clearance, sorting, transport and distribution of postal packets;

“postal service user” means any person benefiting from postal service provision as a sender or as an addressee;

“postal service within the scope of the universal postal service” shall be read in accordance with section 37 ;

“Principal Act” means the Communications Regulation Act 2002 ;

“public road” has the same meaning as in section 2 of the Roads Act 1993 ;

“publish” means make available to the public;

“quality of service standards” has the meaning given to it by section 32 ;

“sender” means a person responsible for originating postal packets;

“sharing mechanism” shall be read in accordance with section 36 ;

“statutory auditor” has the meaning assigned to it by the European Communities (Statutory Audits) (Directive 2006/43/EC) Regulations 2010 ( S.I. No. 220 of 2010 );

“statutory audit firm” has the meaning assigned to it by the European Communities (Statutory Audits) (Directive 2006/43/EC) Regulations 2010 ( S.I. No. 220 of 2010 );

“terminal dues” means the remuneration of a universal postal service provider for the distribution of incoming cross-border mail comprising postal packets from another Member State or from a third country;

“universal postal service” shall be read in accordance with section 16 ;

“universal postal service provider” means any postal service provider for the time being designated under section 17 or 18 .

(2) A word or expression used in this Part and in the Directive or, as the case may be, in Directive 2008/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008, has, unless the contrary intention appears, the same meaning in this Part as in the Directive or, as the case may be, in Directive 2008/6/EC.

(3) For the purposes of this Part—

(a) a postal packet shall be deemed to be in the course of transmission by post from the time of its being presented at an access point to the time of its being delivered,

(b) the delivery of a postal packet of any description to any person authorised to receive postal packets of that description for the post shall be a delivery to a post office, and

(c) the delivery of a postal packet—

(i) at the premises to which it is addressed or redirected, unless the premises are a post office from which the postal packet is to be collected,

(ii) to any box or receptacle to which the occupier of those premises has agreed that postal packets addressed to persons at those premises may be delivered, or

(iii) to the addressee or to the addressee’s agent or to any other person considered to be authorised to receive the postal packet,

shall be a delivery to the addressee.