(Ansa) No one, other than Poste Italiane, can use the terms "stamp, stamp and franking.
This was decided by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court with a sentence in which it rejected an appeal by the Globe Postal Service (Gps). The company requested the annulment of a communication from the Communications Regulatory Authority (Agcom) which prohibited the use of the terms "postage stamp" and "stamp" in information material addressed to customers.
Gps, a company authorized by the Ministry of Economic Development (Mise) to carry out collection, transport, sorting and distribution services for postal items weighing up to 2 kilos, was urged by the authority in April last year to eliminate the term 'postage stamp' , 'stamp' and 'postage' from all products and information materials in any form used in relation to customers. All this, among other things, pursuant to the 2015-2019 Program Agreement between Poste Italiane and the Mise, according to which the distribution and marketing of stamps are the prerogative of the Italian State. Against this communication, GPS rose up before the TAR asking for its annulment.
The administrative judges, in rejecting the appeal, considered that "the terms 'postage stamp', 'stamp' and 'francare/francatura', pursuant to the Upu Convention (Universal postal union) (President Decree January 12, 2007, n. 18), these are terms reserved to the State and to Poste Italiane as the owner of the universal service and, as far as is of greater interest here, the concessionaire of the exclusive right in the distribution of postal securities”. Furthermore, the fact that the term 'stamp', "although generally accompanied by a characterizing adjective, is widely used by the appellant company in its advertising and information material" causes "significant confusion among users", demonstrated "obviously , albeit presumptive, by the very high number of shipments of GPS postcards which erroneously entered the network of the universal service provider, a phenomenon due to the many tourists who post GPS postcards in the boxes of Poste Italiane, rather than those owned by the appellant".
