E-Commerce Parcel Delivery, the Unwanted Guest at the USO Table? An Empirical Study Covering Ten Markets in Europe

In this chapter, we present an empirical analysis of the degree of competition and service quality for domestic bulk business-to-consumer parcel deliveries (hereinafter parcel delivery). This analysis aims to contribute to the European policy debate on whether parcel delivery should be excluded from the universal service obligation (USO) scope, by providing empirical evidence on the actual level of parcel delivery services available to consumers living in urban and rural areas. The analysis is based on a mystery shopping exercise covering a sample of e-retailers located in ten European Economic Area (EEA) countries, including three where parcel delivery is part of the USO (Greece, Portugal, and Sweden) and seven where it is not (Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, and Poland). We evaluate the likely impact of USO regulation on the parcel delivery market by investigating differences in delivery service quality across these countries.