GameFly wins USPS discrimination dispute
The United States Postal Regulatory Commission has issued a ruling in favor of video game rental service GameFly's discrimination claim against the USPS.
It's been two years since video game rental service GameFly filed a formal complaint against the United States Postal Service. Yesterday, the United States Postal Regulatory Commission (USPRC) ruled that the USPS was providing favorable treatment to other companies with similar rent-by-mail models like Netflix and Blockbuster.
GameFly alleged that these other businesses received "special processing" at the USPS facilities that substantially reduced the occurrence of broken or damaged discs, and provided them with a significant cost advantage.
Though the USPS denied claims of discriminatory treatment, the USPRC found in favor of GameFly once all of the evidence had been reviewed. According to the ruling, the USPRC "shall" order the USPS to "take such action as the Commission considers appropriate in order to achieve compliance with the applicable requirements and to remedy the effects of any non-compliance..."
All one hundred twenty-nine pages of the USPRC's report can be read online, but the gist of its major "findings and conclusions" are as follows:
- The Commission finds that GameFly is similarly situated to Netflix, Inc.
- The Commission finds that GameFly has received less favorable rates and terms and conditions of service than Netflix, Inc.
- The Commission finds that the Postal Service has failed to establish reasonable and legitimate reasons for providing GameFly less favorable treatment than Netflix.
- The Commission finds that the Complaint of GameFly is justified and that the Postal Service has unduly discriminated against GameFly in violation of 39 U.S.C. 403(c).
Shacknews is owned and operated by GameFly Media.
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Comment on GameFly wins USPS discrimination dispute, by Jeff Mattas.
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I still don't get how Gamefly should get special treatment akin to Netflix when they GF uses a different size envelope, and includes additional packaging.
If it was identical, yes, I could see the different, but iirc GF's envelopes weigh more than Netflix's in part due to the extra sleeve that the game comes in.-
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The problem was that Gamefly tried to forgoe the insert in the past, and used to mail in BRIGHT ORANGE mailers, but due to theft stopped that. They have tried to do everything to get the same treatment as Netflix but were denied. That's why they sued. My wife is a postal service worker and even questioned why they don't hand-sort out Gamefly envelops to her boss, and he said they only do it for Netflix. Netflix was getting special treatment, and now that treatment is applied to ALL businesses with a similar service. This is freaking awesome someone has enough common sense to see what was going on and that it was wrong.
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you don't make any sense.
gf uses a different mailer only because they aren't getting the special treatment that netflix does. if gf used the same thin mailer as netflix, the game discs would be crushed in the automated mail processing systems. netflix only gets away with using thin mailers because they were getting preferential manual-processing from the postal service.
now that this issue has been resolved, gf will probably use thin mailers (if the particulars of the remedy ordered by the postal commission makes it financially beneficial.)
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