Li­cens­ing

Under postal law generally everyone is entitled to offer and provide postal services.
However, the Postal Act (PostG) requires permission in the form of a licence for
providing certain postal services.

Postal services subject to licence

Essentially anyone commercially conveying (ie collecting, forwarding or delivering) letter-post items (addressed written communication that weighs no more than 1,000 g) for others is required to have a licence. Anyone conveying such items without having the required licence to do so is committing an administrative offence and risks being fined.

Applying for a licence

If you would like to apply for a postal licence, please complete the following form. See the documents linked below for further information.

Evidence and documents for the application process

In order for the company applying to prove its reliability, capability and technical expertise in accordance with section 2(4) and (5) of the Designated Operators Authorisation Regulation (BBetreibZulV), it must attach evidence and documents to its application that can be used to demonstrate and substantiate the following::

  • a current annual financial statement and current balance sheet documentation and annual reports that show and substantiate the nature and scope of international business activities
  • the technical expertise of the individuals acting on behalf of the company with regard to the Universal Postal Convention and legal provisions related to it (under section 2(5) sentence 1 para 3 BBetreibZulV)
  • fulfilment of the preconditions for fixed-location facilities (under section 2 sentence 1 para 1 and section 3 sentence 1 para 1 of the Postal Universal Service Ordinance PUDLV)
  • compliance with rules on the delivery of letter-post items and parcels (under section 2 sentence 1 paras 4 and 5 and section 3 sentence 1 paras 3 and 4 PUDLV)
  • compliance with rules on the transit times of letter-post items and parcels (under section 2 sentence 1 para 3 and section 3 sentence 1 para 2 PUDLV)

Furthermore, any documents may be submitted that can credibly demonstrate reliability, capability and technical expertise.

The application can be submitted to Section 314 of the Bundesnetzagentur by mail or email. The Bundesnetzagentur will decide on the application within three months of receipt of all the information and documents necessary for assessing the applying company's reliability, capability and technical expertise. The Bundesnetzagentur reserves the right to run additional on-site checks on the applying company's premises.

If authorisation as a designated operator is granted, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) informs the Universal Postal Union that the company is a "designated operator". The essential rights and obligations of designated operators are set out in section 2(6) and (7) BBetreibZulV.

Rates approval

Section 34 sentence 4 PostG was changed so that rates approval for formal delivery is only required for market-dominating licensees. All other licensed operators that are not market dominant no longer require rates approval to provide formal delivery.
Further details can be found in Article 1 sentence 1 para 8b of the amending law (available in German).

Designated operators

The application process for authorisation and designation is set out in detail in the BBetreibZulV.
A designated operator is an entity officially designated to fulfil the rights and obligations arising for the Federal Republic of Germany out of the Universal Postal Convention.

Change to a licence

If a corporation (public limited company, European Company, partnership limited by shares, limited liability company or a cooperative) has been issued a licence, then each person who acquires stocks or business shares of the corporation and in doing so obtains more than 10% of the corporation's stocks or business shares must notify the Bundesnetzagentur without delay (notification requirement as set out in section 7(3) PostG).

To notify the Bundesnetzagentur of such changes, please complete and sign the form below, then send it by fax or mail to the address provided in the contact box.

Notification form for a change to a licence (pdf in German)

Licence lists

The first two linked files below contain lists of the currently issued (valid) licences; one list is sorted by licence number and the other by postcode. The third linked file below contains a list published by the Bundesnetzagentur of companies whose licences became invalid in the past quarter.:

Licences issued (updated 11 January 2024, sorted by licence number, pdf in German)
Licences issued (updated 11 January 2024, sorted by postcode, pdf in German)
Note: the licence area is determined by the company applying for a licence and not specified by the Bundesnetzagentur.

Invalid licences (third quarter 2023, pdf in German)
Note: these are the names of only those companies whose licence became invalid in the past quarter.

Contact

Licensing
Bundesnetzagentur, Tulpenfeld 4, 53113 Bonn

Tel.: +49 228 14 - 0
Fax: +49 228 14 - 6317
E-Mail: 314.Lizenzierung@bnetza.de

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