Industry prepares complaint about USPS e-commerce efforts

Charging that the United States Postal Service's increasing forays into e-commerce are anticompetitive, secretive, and in conflict with other legislative bodies governing the Internet, technology industry officials are preparing to file a formal complaint against the agency and are seeking support from Capitol Hill.

"If the U.S. wishes to go after a bloated bureaucratic monopoly using bully techniques to stifle competition, they should be looking at the U.S. Postal Service, not Microsoft," said David McClure, executive director of the U.S. Internet Industry Association. Although McClure said that his organization does not take a position on the Microsoft antitrust case, USIIA does "have a great concern about what is going on with the postal service."

In a letter sent last week to 38 legislators with a focus on information technology and the Postal Service, USIIA raised particular concerns about an electronic postmark program. It said the program would forestall private sector initiative in digital signatures, a program to map physical addresses to a post office e-mail address, and the agency's electronic bill payment service.

USIIA is one of several industry associations that have raised questions about recent postal service initiatives. The Computer and Communications Industry Association has raised questions about the recently launched bill payment service, and several other groups have expressed concerns that agency rules may compromise individual privacy. USIIA plans to file a formal complaint about its concerns with the Postal Rate Commission.

"If Congress allows the Postal Service to get their foot in the 'e-door,' then it is more than likely that they will leverage their Postal Inspection Service law enforcement arm and their uniquely unbridled regulatory authority to become regulator of the Internet," said Rick Merritt, executive director of the non-profit Postal Watch. "It will be far worse than just regulating the Internet, they will be competing with those that they regulate."

Postal Service officials did not return calls seeking comment.

McClure said that the USIIA planned to hold a meeting with other groups this week to strategize about ways to rein in the agency. In the letter they sent last week, the group urged legislators to pass language that would "prevent predatory Federal agencies from limiting competition or otherwise damaging the existing and emerging private companies."

"Given the entry of the U.S. Postal Service into electronic commerce, its historic role as a regulator and its current exemption from anti-trust considerations, it remains to be resolved whether the U.S. Postal Service should be permitted to dominate services it may also seek to regulate," the letter read.

USIIA also complained that the Postal Service has been implementing its e-commerce programs without proper public notice, and without consideration for their impact upon global governance of the Internet.