Fridolin newspaper is entitled to delivery discount
The Federal Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Bakom. The latter rejected the price reduction for the delivery of the Glarner Zeitung and lodged an appeal against a contrary decision by the Federal Administrative Court.
The price reduction for postal delivery was granted to Fridolin until the end of 2012. Bakom then justified its negative response to Fridolin Druck und Medien's renewed application by stating that the proportion of subscribed newspapers was too small.
According to the federal authorities, at least 75% of the total circulation must be subscribed to in order to benefit from the discounted delivery, which serves to promote the press. In 2013 and 2014, the federal government made a total of CHF 50 million available for this purpose. The certified total circulation of Fridolin is 29,707 copies. 2347 copies are subscribed to, which corresponds to around 8 percent of the large circulation.
As the Federal Supreme Court states in its ruling, there is no legal basis for Bakom's decision. There is no regulation stating that only those daily and weekly newspapers that are at least 75 percent subscribed benefit from the price reduction for delivery.
The Federal Supreme Court also dismissed a further appeal by Bakom against the Federal Administrative Court's granting of the price reduction. This means that the satirical magazine Vigousse is also entitled to the reduced delivery fee.
The Lausanne judges also rejected the appeal by OFCOM regarding the application by the newspaper IZA - Illustrierte Zeitschrift für Sicherheit und Gesundheit am Arbeitsplatz und in der Freizeit, which OFCOM had also rejected. At the behest of the Federal Administrative Court - and now also the Federal Supreme Court - the authority must in this case
clarify the facts again. (SDA)
