Arumeel said that as a result of a substantial reduction in revenue resulting from reduced volumes of letter mail an ever bigger portion of the costs of the company needs to be borne by media companies. 

The Postal Act is failing to keep up with the times and failure to carry out an adjustment of the prices of the universal postal service in recent years are playing a role in this, Arumeel said. Eesti Post is the state-held postal company operating under the Omniva brand. 

"Eesti Post supports media companies via its other services and businesses, yet such cross-subsidization is neither permitted nor correct," he said.

The rise in the price of home delivery of periodicals is to provide Eesti Post with an estimated €334,000 in additional income, which will be directed toward raising the wages of workers or the lowest ranks. 

"This is indispensable income which we cannot adjourn, as we are experiencing difficulties finding delivery personnel in several regions already," Arumeel said. 

Eesti Post announced on Monday that it plans to increase the prices of its subscription services by 11.1 percent. Media enterprises have said that the price hike is too great and they would agree to a 5 percent increase.

The Estonian Association of Media Enterprises submitted a request for information to the Competition Authority on Friday to find out whether or not the 11.1 percent price increase is compliant with the Competition Act.

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