The new mutual agreement is valid for a limited period until 31 December 2017 and came into force on 1 July 2016. This follows the expiry on 31 March 2016 of the previous agreement reached in January 2014. The compromise offers customers the following advantages and makes business transactions with Swiss Post more straightforward:

• By the end of 2017, every household in Switzerland will receive a card with two free one-franc stamps as a gift.
• Swiss Post will reduce the price of SMS postage stamps from 1.20 to 1 franc as of 1 January 2017.
• Between July and October 2017, customers will receive a 30 percent discount on paid postcards sent via the PostCard Creator App (1.40 instead of 2 francs/card).
• Swiss Post will extend the validity of the one-franc stamps distributed to each Swiss household in 2014 until the end of 2017.
• Swiss Post is aligning its range of products for private customers with that available to business customers as of 1 January 2017. Private customers can now send standard and midi letters in B5 format from 20 mm and up to 50 mm thick as letters for a format surcharge of CHF 1.50 per consignment.
• Swiss Post has decided not to go ahead with the planned price increase from 3 to 5 francs for each manually completed waybill submitted by business customers for PostPac International, Priority / Economy and URGENT consignments. Each private customer who does not complete his or her own waybill, but instead has it completed at the post office counter, will now also have to pay a surcharge. This surcharge will also amount to 3 francs instead of 5 francs as initially planned.

The prices of Swiss Post services set out in the mutual agreement dated 20 January 2014 will remain largely unchanged until the end of 2017. This not only concerns the prices of parcels, but also applies to the prices of domestic A and B Mail letters, which were increased for the last time in 2004.

The mutual agreement between the price regulator and Swiss Post takes into account modifications to prices and product ranges planned by Swiss Post for 2017. Swiss Post will announce the exact contents of these measures later in the year.

Swiss Post relies on solid profits

In light of Swiss Post’s current economic situation, the agreement with the price regulator can be regarded as a viable solution. The economic situation caused by volume declines resulting from technological change, as well as the ongoing low interest rate environment in the financial sector, pose major challenges for Swiss Post. To enable investment in infrastructure and innovation and allow it to develop in the long term using its own resources, Swiss Post depends on solid profits.