7.5.2002 Official Journal of the European Communities L 120/19 COMMISSION DECISION of 23 October 2001 on the lack of exhaustive and independent scrutiny of the scales of charges and technical conditions applied by La Poste to mail preparation firms for access to its reserved services (notified under document number C(2001) 3186) (Text with EEA relevance) (Only the French text is authentic) (2002/344/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Mail preparation is in all cases an activity upstream of acceptance of the items by La Poste as part of the services it provides within the reserved area. The very nature of mail preparation involves use of the reserved Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- services. From a conceptual standpoint, and although in munity, and in particular Article 86(3) thereof, practice the various tasks involved are interlinked (') in a continuum of services that are often provided by the same firms, the term ‘mail preparation’ covers two ) ) » different types of activity (2). Having given the French authorities and La Poste the oppor- tunity, by letters of 27 October 1999 and 30 November 1999 respectively, to make known their views on the objections raised by the Commission with regard to French postal legislation relating to mail preparation services, Whereas: 1.1.1.  Services provided on behalf of originators of mail 1. THE FACTS 1.1. The relevant services (2)  Mail preparation may firstly cover a service provided for the benefit of a mail originator. In such cases, the activity involves making up items (printing, enveloping or plastic wrapping, labelling, addressing and franking), collecting, (1)  This Decision relates exclusively to the relations between bundling and sorting them and delivering them to the La Poste (the French postal service) and those of its offices of La Poste. commercial partners which are mail preparation firms operating in markets upstream of its own main activity, namely basic postal services. These commercial partners can be regarded both as: — users in so far as they act as a proxy for originators of mail, who entrust them with the delivery of their (1) In their memo to the Commission dated 4 February 2000, p. 1, items to the offices of La Poste. and the French authorities refer to ‘the real interlinking of the different tasks necessary for the swift and cost-effective treatment of bulk mail’. . . . (?) See memo from the French authorities dated 4 February 2000, — suppliers of La Poste, in so far as they provide p- 1, and letter from La Poste dated 18 December 1998, p. 2; see certain services in place of the PUbliC postal oper- also L’Analyse des relations contractuelles entre La Poste et les routeurs, ator, upstream of the operations lying within the Tera Consultants, 2 February 2000, p. 9, report forwarded to the scope of its reserved area. Commission by La Poste.