Represented Claimants
Class Membership
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 allows a collective action to be brought on behalf of a group of persons who are alleged to have suffered loss. The group is called a “class” and all those within the group are “class members.” As a result of the 2015 Act, individuals or entities who have suffered losses do not need to each bring an individual claim to obtain compensation. Instead, they may receive compensation through a single, collective claim brought on their behalf by a class representative.
In this claim, class members compromise all persons who purchased or paid for Bulk Mail Retail Services (“Bulk Mail Retail Customers”) from 10 January 2014 until 29 May 2024.
For these purposes:
- For the avoidance of doubt, “persons” includes companies, public bodies and charities but does not include dissolved companies.
- “Bulk Mail Retail Services” means any services consisting of any of the following activities: (i) collection and initial sortation activities, including the direct or indirect collection of Bulk Mail, geographically sorting the mail by delivery location and transportation to that area; and (ii) delivery services, consisting of the inward processing, local distribution and delivery of Bulk Mail to the addressee (“Bulk Mail Delivery Services”).
- “Bulk Mail” means high volume mailings of often similar or identical mailing items being sent to addresses across the whole of the UK or at least a substantial part of it, by a company or other organisation, such as a public body or charity. Bulk Mail includes, for example, financial or transactional mail produced by banks, government bodies and utility companies, and addressed advertising mail.
- The class includes Bulk Mail Retail Customers who paid for Bulk Mail Retail Services from Royal Mail or from an Access Operator, whether directly or via an agent.
- “Access Operator” means a Bulk Mail Retail Operator who procures Bulk Mail Delivery Services from Royal Mail.
- “Bulk Mail Retail Operator” means a provider of Bulk Mail Retail Services.
- The class includes Bulk Mail Retail Customers who paid for Royal Mail’s Bulk Mail Delivery Services separately, whether directly or via an agent.
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The class excludes:
- Access Operators;
- Any person who opts out by notifying the Class Representative in a manner and by a time specified by the Tribunal; or
- person who is not domiciled in the United Kingdom at a time specified by the Tribunal and does not, in the manner and by the time specified by the Tribunal, opt in by notifying the PCR Class Representative that their claim should be included in the collective proceedings.