[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 65 (Tuesday, April 7, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15784-15785]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-7770]


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POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. MC2009-19; Order No. 198]


New Postal Products

AGENCY: Postal Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Commission is noticing a recently-filed Postal Service 
request to add postal products to the Mail Classification Schedule. 
This notice addresses procedural steps associated with this filing.

DATES: Comments are due April 30, 2009.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments electronically via the Commission's Filing 
Online system at http://www.prc.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen L. Sharfman, General Counsel, 
202-789-6820 and [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 10, 2009, the Postal Service filed 
a request to add several products to the Mail Classification Schedule 
(MCS) product lists.\1\ The Request is in response to the Commission's 
ruling in Order No. 154 that six products were properly classified as 
postal services, but could not be authorized for inclusion in the MCS 
product lists until formal requirements of the Commission's regulations 
are met.\2\
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    \1\ Request of the United States Postal Service to Add Postal 
Products to the Mail Classification Schedule in Response to Order 
No. 154, March 10, 2009 (Request).
    \2\ Docket No. MC2008-1, Review of Nonpostal Services, December 
19, 2008, at 27-38 (Order No. 154). The six services discussed in 
Order No. 154 were Address Management Services; Customized Postage; 
Stamp Fulfillment Services; Greeting Cards, Stationery, and Related 
Items; Shipping and Mailing Supplies; and International Money 
Transfer Service (IMTS). One of the services, Stamp Fulfillment 
Services, has been modified and, in the view of the Postal Service, 
is no longer a postal service. Request at 10. Accordingly, the 
Request does not include Stamp Fulfillment Services among the 
services to be added to the MCS. Commenters may wish to address this 
change. Of the remaining five services discussed in Order No. 154, 
the market dominant address management services product has retained 
the name ``Address Management Services'' and has been included on 
the Market Dominant Product List. The competitive address management 
services product has been named ``Address Enhancement Service'' and 
has been included on the Competitive Product List. Finally, IMTS has 
been separated into an inbound product (IMTS-Inbound) and an 
outbound product (IMTS-Outbound). As a result, the Postal Service 
has proposed the addition to the MCS of seven products in place of 
the six discussed by Order No. 154.
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    The Request is filed pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 3642 and 39 CFR 3020.30 
et. seq. and includes proposed MCS language,\3\ statements of 
supporting justification, and attachments containing cost and revenue 
data.\4\ Section 3020.30 allows the Postal Service to request the 
modification of the product lists to add new postal services to either 
the Market Dominant Product List or the Competitive Product List. The 
Postal Service must provide detailed support and justification for the 
request. 39 CFR 3020.31 and 3020.32. The Commission will review the 
Request and the comments of interested parties and may approve the 
request, institute further proceedings, permit the Postal Service to 
modify the request, or take other appropriate action under section 
3020.34.
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    \3\ Attachment A to the Request illustrates the proposed changes 
to the Mail Classification Schedule.
    \4\ Attachment B is the Statement of Supporting Justification 
for Address Management Services; Attachment C is the Statement of 
Supporting Justification for Address Enhancement Service; Attachment 
D is the Statement of Supporting Justification for Customized 
Postage; Attachment E is the Statement of Supporting Justification 
for Greeting Cards, Stationery, and Related Items; Attachment F is 
the Statement of Supporting Justification for Shipping and Mailing 
Supplies; Attachment G is the Statement of Supporting Justification 
for Inbound and Outbound International Money Transfer Services; and 
Attachment H is the Statement of Supporting Justification for 
Inbound and Outbound International Money Transfer Service. Cost and 
revenue data are included for Shipping and Mailing Supplies in 
Attachment F and for Address Enhancement Service in Attachment C. 
These attachments, as well as sensitive commercial information 
contained in the supporting statements, have been filed under seal 
subject to claims of confidentiality.
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    The products requested to be added to the Market Dominant Product 
List are Address Management Services and Customized Postage. The Postal 
Service proposes to add these products as Special Services. Request at 
2. The products requested to be added to the Competitive Product List 
are Address Enhancement Service; Greeting Cards,

[[Page 15785]]

Stationery, and Related Items; Shipping and Mailing Supplies; 
International Money Transfer Service-Outbound (IMTS-Outbound); and 
International Money Transfer Service-Inbound (IMTS-Inbound). Id.
    The Postal Service explains that no Governors' decision was 
required in this case since this request is simply for the placement on 
the MCS product lists of already-existing products, at already-existing 
prices. Id.
    In accordance with section 3020.31(d), the Postal Service states 
that none of these products constitutes a special classification within 
the meaning of 39 U.S.C. 3622(c)(10) for market dominant products, or 
constitutes a nonpostal product. None of these products constitutes a 
product not of general applicability within the meaning of 39 U.S.C. 
3632(b)(3), with the exception of IMTS-Inbound. The terms governing 
IMTS-Inbound are documented in 10 agreements with foreign postal 
administrations. Id.
    The Postal Service states that the 10 negotiated agreements under 
consideration as the IMTS-Inbound product are functionally equivalent 
and may be considered price categories within that product. The Postal 
Service therefore requests the Commission to treat them as functionally 
equivalent and to classify them collectively as IMTS-Inbound agreements 
within the MCS. Id. at 9-10.\5\
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    \5\ The Postal Service has filed by separate notice in this 
docket material identified as USPS-MC2009-19/1, Public Supporting 
Materials Relating to International Products. With redactions, the 
material includes public portions of eight bilateral agreements for 
International Money Order service. Five of the bilateral agreements 
that make up the IMTS-Inbound product also have been filed under 
seal as they include information of a commercial nature relating to 
commissions and fees. See USPS-MC2009-19/NP1, Nonpublic Supporting 
Materials Relating to Competitive and International Products. Id. at 
4.
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    The proposed MCS language in Attachment A of the Request is 
identical to the MCS language that has previously been filed by the 
Postal Service with respect to these services,\6\ with the four 
following exceptions. Language for International Money Transfer Service 
has been revised. The price range for Greeting Cards, Stationery, and 
Related Items has been revised to take into account an existing 
stationery set whose price falls outside of the price range as 
originally proposed. The Customized Postage product has been changed to 
read ``customer-selected images'' to recognize that customers can order 
customized postage using library images provided by the vendor or a 
third party. As the last exception, the name of the competitive address 
management services has been changed to ``Address Enhancement Service'' 
to distinguish it from its market dominant counterpart. Id. at 3.
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    \6\ See Docket No. CP2009-8, Notice of the United States Postal 
Service of Changes in Rates of General Applicability for Competitive 
Products Established in Governors' Decision No. 08-19, Attachment B 
at 102-04, November 13, 2008 (referring to IMTS); Docket No. MC2008-
1, United States Postal Service Notice of Filing of Proposed Mail 
Classification Schedule Language for Four Products It Requests 
Should Be Added to the Product Lists as Postal Services, October 17, 
2008 (referring to Address Management Services; Customized Postage; 
Shipping and Mailing Supplies; and Greeting Cards, Stationery and 
Related Items).
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    The MCS language in Attachment A modifies the language previously 
filed with the Commission in Docket No. CP2009-8 and creates separate 
IMTS services to distinguish the inbound exchanges from the outbound 
exchanges. Id. at 7. New language is added to reflect the expectation 
of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) that member countries will, as of 
January 1, 2010, designate operators, which may or may not be posts, to 
fulfill on their behalf the obligations of the UPU's Postal Payment 
Services Agreement. New language is also proposed for the IMTS-Inbound 
product and price category. Id.
    Pursuant to section 3020.33, the Commission provides interested 
persons an opportunity to express views and offer comments on whether 
the planned modifications are consistent with the policies of 39 U.S.C. 
3633 and 3642 and to indicate whether a hearing is desired. Comments 
are due no later than April 30, 2009.
    Pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 505, Robert Sidman is appointed to serve as 
officer of the Commission (Public Representative) to represent the 
interests of the general public in the above-captioned docket.
    It is Ordered:
    1. Docket No. MC2009-19 is established to consider the Postal 
Service Request referred to in the body of this order.
    2. Comments are due no later than April 30, 2009.
    3. The Commission appoints Robert Sidman as Public Representative 
to represent the interests of the general public in this proceeding.
    4. The Secretary shall arrange for publication of this Order in the 
Federal Register.

    By the Commission.
Steven W. Williams,
Secretary.
 [FR Doc. E9-7770 Filed 4-6-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7710-FW-P