WIXLIB

[CAP. 254.POSTAL SERVICES1CHAPTER 254POSTAL SERVICES ACTTo provide for matters relating to the postal services.9th December, 1975ACT XXXV of 1975, as amended by Acts XVIII of 1977, XIII of 1983,XXXVIII of 1988, VI of 1990, XXIX of 1995, XI of 1998, VI of 2001, XXVIIof 2002 and VII of 2004; Legal Notice 423 of 2007; Act XXX of 2007;Legal Notice 346 of 2008; Acts XXIII of 2009 and XII of 2010; and LegalNotices 21 of 2011 and 180 of 2012.PART IPRELIMINARY1.2.The short title of this Act is the Postal Services Act.(1)In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -"this Act" includes any regulations made made under this Actunless the context otherwise requires;"access points" means physical facilities, including letter boxesprovided for the public either on streets, public ways, publichighways or at the premises of the postal service provider orproviders where postal articles may be deposited with the postalnetwork by senders;Short title.Amended by:XXVII. 2002.3.Interpretation.Amended by:XVIII.1977.2;XXVII. 2002.4;VII. 2004.30;XXX. 2007.12;XII. 2010.20;L.N. 180 of 2012."article of correspondence" means a communication in writtenform on any kind of physical medium to be conveyed and deliveredat the address indicated by the sender on the article itself or on itswrapping but does not include books, catalogues, newspapers andperiodicals;"authorisation" means any permission however so describedissued in accordance with this Act, setting out rights andobligations specific to the postal sector and allowing operators toprovide postal services and, where applicable, to establish and, oroperate their networks for the provision of such services in theform of a general authorisation or an individual licence as definedunder this article;"authorised provider" means any person who holds a validlicence or authorisation to operate or provide postal services;" A u th or it y " m e a n s t he M a lt a C om m un ic a ti on s A ut ho ri tyestablished under the Malta Communications Authority Act;"basic counter service" means a network of access pointsdistributed throughout Malta providing postal services includingthe sale of stamps, registration of mail, parcel collection anddelivery;"clearance" means the operation of collecting postal articles by apostal service provider;Cap. 418.

2CAP. 254.]POSTAL SERVICES"cross-border mail" means mail to or from another country;"customs duty" includes value added tax or any other tax wherepayable upon importation;"data protection" includes personal data protection, theconfidentiality of information transmitted, shared or stored, andprotection of privacy;"decision" includes any determination, direction, measure,requirement or specification, however so described, made by theAuthority;"direct mail" means a communication consisting solely ofadvertising, marketing or publicity material and comprising anidentical message, except for the addressee’s name, address andidentifying number as well as other modifications which do notalter the nature of the message, which is sent to a significantnumber of addressees, to be conveyed and delivered at the addressindicated by the sender on the article itself or on its wrapping andincludes cross-border as well as inland mail. Bills, invoices,financial statements or other non-identical messages andcommunications combining direct mail with other articles withinthe same wrapping shall not be included as direct mail:Provided that the Authority shall interpret the term"significant number of addressees" in relation to direct mail andp u bl i s h by n ot i c e i n t h e G a z e t te a n d o n t h e w e b s i te of t heAuthority, an appropriate definition from time to time;"distribution" means the process from sorting at the distributioncentre to delivery of postal articles to their addressees;"essential requirements" means general non-economic reasonswhich can induce the Authority to impose conditions on the supplyof postal services. These reasons are the confidentiality ofcorrespondence, security of the network as regards the transport ofdangerous goods, respect for the terms and conditions ofemployment, social security schemes laid down by law oradministrative provision and, or by collective agreement betweennational social partners, in accordance with Community andnational law, and where justified, data protection, environmentalprotection and regional planning;"fictitious stamp" means any facsimile, imitation orrepresentation of a postage stamp;"foreign" used in relation to a postal article means posted inMalta and addressed to any country or place outside Malta, or viceversa;"Gazette" means the Malta Government Gazette;"general authorisation" means an authorisation regardless ofwhether it is regulated by a ‘class licence’ and regardless ofwhether such regulation requires registration or declarationprocedures, which does not require the postal operator concerned toobtain an explicit decision by the Authority before exercising therights stemming from the authorisation;

POSTAL SERVICES[CAP. 254.3"Government" means the Government of Malta;"individual licence" means an authorisation which is granted bythe Authority and which gives a postal operator specific rights, orwhich subjects the operations of that operator to specificoblig at ions suppl ementin g the general aut hori sati on whereapplicable, where the postal operator is not entitled to exercise therights until it has received the decision by the Authority further tothe operator’s application for such authorisation;"inland" used in relation to a postal article means posted in Maltaand addressed to any place in Malta;"insured article" means a service insuring a postal article up tothe value declared by the sender in the event of loss, theft ordamage;"interested parties" includes licensed postal service operators,manufacturers, registered consumer associations registered inaccordance with the Consumer Affairs Act and any postal users’groups duly recognised as such by the Authority which groups mustsatisfy any criteria that the Authority with the consent of the Ministermay by notice in the Gazette prescribe;"letter" includes all postal articles which may by regulations betransmitted through the post at letter rates;"letter-box" includes every pillar box, wall box, and every otherbox or receptacle provided in a place accessible to the public underthe permission of the Authority for the purpose of receiving postalarticles for collection by a postal operator and delivery to theaddressee;"mail bag" includes any bag, box, parcel, envelope, or coveringin which postal articles in course of transmission by post areconveyed, whether it does or does not contain any such article;"mail ship" means any ship or aircraft employed for the conveyanceof mail, pursuant to a contract or arrangement made by a postaloperator or by an entity performing similar functions in anothercountry;"Malta" has the same meaning as is assigned to it by article 124of the Constitution of Malta;"master of a ship" means the person for the time being in chargeor command of a vessel used in navigation, or of an aircraft, butdoes not include the pilot of a vessel used in navigation;"Minister" means the Minister responsible for posts, and includesany person authorised in that behalf by such Minister;"officer of a postal operator" includes every person employed in anybusiness carried by a postal operator or is acting for or on behalf of apostal operator;"parcel" means a postal article which is not an item ofcorrespondence, the weight of which does not exceed twentykilograms and the dimensions of which fall within the limits of sizelaid down in Agreements concerning Postal Parcels adopted by theUniversal Postal Union as may be amended from time to time, or byCap. 378.

4CAP. 254.]POSTAL SERVICESany other convention as the Authority may prescribe;"person" includes an association or body of persons, whethercorporate or not;"pilot" means the person in charge or command of an aircraft;"post office" includes any branch or subdivision of a postal operator,and any house, building, room, vehicle, place or device used for thepurposes of the postal operator, and any letter-box;"postage" means the fees chargeable for the transmission by postof postal articles;"postage stamp" means any stamp for denoting postage or otherfees or sums payable in respect of postal articles, and includesadhesive postage stamps and stamps printed, embossed, impressedor otherwise indicated on any envelope, card, wrapper, postcard orother article, whether such postage stamp is issued under this Actor by the Government of a foreign country or by a PostalAdministration recognised by the Minister;"postal article" means an article addressed in the final form inwhich it is to be carried by a postal operator. In addition to articlesof correspondence, such articles also include books, catalogues,newspapers, periodicals and postal parcels, however so described,including packages containing merchandise with or withoutcommercial value;"postal network" means the system of organization and resourcesof all kinds used by the universal service provider or providers forthe purposes in particular of:(i)the clearance of postal articles covered by a universalservice obligation from access points throughoutMalta,(ii)the routing and handling of those postal articles fromthe postal network access point to the distributioncentre,(iii) distribution to the addresses shown on postal articles;"postal operator" means any person licensed to supply one ormore postal services as defined in this Act in Malta and othercountries and includes any person who carries on within or outsideMalta any business or activity relating to postal services includingany services that are ancillary to postal services;"postal services" means services involving the clearance, sorting,transport and distribution of postal articles:Provided that the provision of a service of transport alone shallnot be considered as a postal service;"postcard" means any card admissible as a postcard inaccordance with this Act or under any regulation made under thisAct and includes a reply postcard;"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made under thisAct;"printed matter" includes any newspaper and any record, tape,