Bundesnetzagentur publishes planned postage price cap

Year of issue 2026
Date of issue 2026.10.12

The Bundesnetzagentur has today published its intended decision in the “price-cap procedure” for Deutsche Post AG’s postage charges from 2027.

“The main reason for the increase in postage charges is the strong decline in letter volumes”, said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur . “When costs are divided among fewer letters, partly due to the increasing digitalisation, prices go up. At the same time, the Bundesnetzagentur has kept below the adjustments called for by Deutsche Post AG and has not taken account of various items claimed by it.”

Breakdown of the scope calculated for the rate increases

In the price-cap procedure, the Bundesnetzagentur determines the scope for adjustments to Deutsche Post AG’s postage rates. The scope for rate increases results from an overall increase in prices (inflation rate) and growth in productivity. An appropriate profit mark-up is taken into account.

An overall inflation rate of currently 4.04% is assumed for the period of validity of two years. Productivity is deteriorating as a result of falling volumes and burdens that can no longer be offset by efficiency gains. It amounts to minus 16.31% for personal customer letters and for business mail and minus 6.68% for personal customer parcels.

For each sector (or “basket”) the following average rate increases are possible:

In the price-cap procedure, Deutsche Post AG had asked for greater scope for adjustments in light of the fact that value-chain and common costs were rising while letter volumes were falling.