This Directive shall apply to activities relating to the provision of postal services or, on the conditions set out in paragraph 2(c), other services than postal services.

For the purpose of this Directive and without prejudice to Directive 97/67/EC:

• (a) ‘postal item’

  means an item addressed in the final form in which it is to be carried, irrespective of weight. In addition to items of correspondence, such items also include for instance books, catalogues, newspapers, periodicals and postal packages containing merchandise with or without commercial value, irrespective of weight;

• (b) ‘postal services’

  means services consisting of the clearance, sorting, routing and delivery of postal items. These services comprise:

  • ‘reserved postal services’: postal services which are or may be reserved on the basis of Article 7 of Directive 97/67/EC,

  • ‘other postal services’: postal services which may not be reserved on the basis of Article 7 of Directive 97/67/EC; and

• (c) ‘other services than postal services’

  means services provided in the following areas:

  • mail service management services (services both preceding and subsequent to despatch, such as ‘mailroom management services’),

  • added-value services linked to and provided entirely by electronic means (including the secure transmission of coded documents by electronic means, address management services and transmission of registered electronic mail),

  • services concerning postal items not included in point (a), such as direct mail bearing no address,

  • financial services, as defined in category 6 of Annex XVII A and in Article 24(c) and including in particular postal money orders and postal giro transfers,

  • philatelic services, and

  • logistics services (services combining physical delivery and/or warehousing with other non-postal functions),

  on condition that such services are provided by an entity which also provides postal services within the meaning of point (b), first or second indent, and provided that the conditions set out in Article 30(1) are not satisfied in respect of the services falling within those indents.