Deutsche Post DHL to repay state aid of up to one billion Euro to German government
By: Miriam Sauter On: 26/01/2012 In: Parcel Delivery Service Feedback: 0
Yesterday, Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL, responded rather angrily to the latest state aid ruling by the European Commission:
“The EU Commission’s ruling on repayment is incomprehensible and has no basis in fact. (…) If you examine the state aid rulings on other European postal service providers, it becomes quite clear that here the Commission has applied double standard.”
Image c/o DHLBack in 2007, the EU Commission had launched an investigation against the German government and its allegedly unlawful state aid to the logistics group Deutsche Post AG. The case resulted in a defeat for the EU Commission three years later.
However, the Commission set out a new state aid ruling yesterday. Its investigations particularly focussed on the funding of civil servant pension and state funds such as financial equalisation.
According to the EU Commission,
Deutsche Post DHL had assessed its pension expenses incorrectly. For this reason, the logistics and postal mail provider was asked to repay their state aid to the Germany over following months. The overall sum within the range of 500 million to one billion euros.
Deutsche Post DHL stated that the repay would not affect its company earnings. However, the company’s liquidity would suffer temporarily.