I presumed this story was going to be about the USPS monopoly on first-class mail and would involve an armed raid to shut down competition, as has happened in t

I presumed this story was going to be about the USPS monopoly on first-class mail and would involve an armed raid to shut down competition, as has happened in the past. "The monopoly is well enforced. The USPS can conduct searches and seizures if it suspects citizens of contravening its monopoly. For example, in 1993, armed postal inspectors entered the headquarters of Equifax Inc. in Atlanta. The postal inspectors demanded to know if all the mail sent by Equifax through Federal Express was indeed "extremely urgent," as mandated by the Postal Service's criteria for suspension of the Private Express Statutes. Equifax paid the Postal Service a fine of $30,000. The Postal Service reportedly collected $521,000 for similar fines from twenty-one mailers between 1991 and 1994." http://www.aei.org/papers/economics/opportunities-for-anticompetitive-behavior-in-postal-services/ http://www.aei.org/papers/economics/opportunities-for-antico...