Member States shall ensure that quality-of-service standards are set and published in relation to universal service in order to guarantee a postal service of good quality.
Quality standards shall focus, in particular, on routing times and on the regularity and reliability of services.
These standards shall be set by:
- the Member States in the case of national services,
- the European Parliament and the Council in the case of intra-Community cross-border services (see Annex). Future adjustment of these standards to technical progress or market developments shall be made in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 21.
Independent performance monitoring shall be carried out at least once a year by external bodies having no links with the universal service providers under standardised conditions to be specified in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 21 and shall be the subject of reports published at least once a year.
Member States shall day down quality standards for national mail and shall ensure that they are compatible with those laid down for intra-Community cross-border services.
Member States shall notify their quality standards for national services to the Commission, who will publish them in the same manner as the standards for intra-Community cross-border services referred to in Article 18.
National regulatory authorities shall ensure that independent performance monitoring is carried out in accordance with the fourth subparagraph of Article 16, that the results are justified, and that corrective action is taken where necessary.
1. In accordance with Article 16, quality standards for intra-Community cross-border services are laid down in the Annex.
2. Where exceptional situations relating to infrastructure or geography so require, the national regulatory authorities may determine exemptions from the quality standards provided for in the Annex. Where national regulatory authorities determine exemptions in this manner, they shall notify the Commission forthwith. The Commission shall submit an annual report of the notifications received during the previous 12 months to the Committee established under Article 21 for its information.
3. The Commission shall publish in the Official Journal of the European Communities any adjustments made to the quality standards for intra-Community cross-border services and shall take steps to ensure the regular independent monitoring and the publication of performance levels certifying compliance with these standards and the progress accomplished. National regulatory authorities shall ensure that corrective action is taken where necessary.
Member States shall ensure that transparent, simple and inexpensive procedures are drawn up for dealing with users' complaints, particularly in cases involving loss, theft, damage or non-compliance with service quality standards.
Member States shall adopt measures to ensure that those procedures enable disputes to be settled fairly and promptly with provision, where warranted, for a system of reimbursement and/or compensation.
Without prejudice to other possibilities of appeal under national and Community legislation, Member States shall ensure that users, acting individually or, where permitted by national law, jointly with organisations representing the interests of users and/or consumers, may bring before the competent national authority cases where users' complaints to the universal service provider have not been satisfactory resolved.
In accordance with Article 16, Member States shall ensure that the universal service providers publish, together with the annual report on the monitoring of their performance, information on the number of complaints and the manner in which they have been dealt with.
CHAPTER 7
Harmonisation of technical standards
