SME association wants audit on Swiss Post’s private expansion

© Keystone / Ennio Leanza

Switzerland's Federation of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) has raised concerns about possible violations of subsidy law by the Swiss Post.

The SME umbrella association has written to the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) to ask it to conduct an audit. It believes that state-owned Swiss Post’s acquisitions of companies in the advertising and software sectors “are dubious” and that the prices paid are “difficult to understand” in relation to the reality of the market.

“It is all the more shocking that Swiss Post is attacking more and more saturated markets, where it can only be a question of ousting private players,” said the SME association in its letter to the Audit Office, revealed on Saturday by the Le Temps paper.

The letter stated that Swiss Post should prove that it does not allocate financial resources to non-subsidised areas of activity. It called on the Audit Office to examine as to whether Swiss Post is violating the law on subsidies by pursuing such business models.

Swiss Post responded to the accusation by stating that since the market was opened up to competition in 1997, the company “was given safeguards” and it “sticks to them”. The acquisitions are not part of a “purchasing strategy”, but a “focus” strategy, according to the firm. 

“In the end, it is a question of a small number of defined and strategically selected companies that the Post wishes to acquire,” the company said.