Sharing costs between a Service of General Economic Interest and Competitive Activities: The Example of the Postal Retail Network

The European Commission has produced precise rules governing the computation of the cost of services of general economic interest (SGEI). The Commission has adopted a fully distributed cost approach where the SGEI can bear a "reasonable" share of the common cost. We highlight a possible inconsistency issue between this state aid case law and the antitrust case law based on an incremental cost approach. We also show the difficulty introduced by the identification of the common costs, relying on the example of the network of a postal operator providing commercial services and fulfilling an accessibility obligation.