On May 22, 2018 the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the USPS methods for determining pricing of competitive products.
The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2007 requires that competitive products (such as packages) delivered by the USPS not be subsidized by the non-competitive products (such as first class mail). Competitive products must, in effect, pay their own way. UPS filed a lawsuit against the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) arguing that the manner in which the PRC determines the cost of mailing competitive products is inconsistent with the statute, and that competitive products are under-priced by the USPS. The Court of Appeals sided with the PRC saying that the court is not supposed to substitute its judgement for that of the federal agency in charge, so long as the agency’s decision is “reasonable or permissable.”