Data Laws Deliver New Blow to Ailing Royal Mail Letters Business

Royal Mail Plc, Britain’s 500-year-old postal service, said it expects rules designed to rein in the abuse of personal data to weigh on letter volumes as companies are forced to scrap targeted marketing campaigns. The introduction of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation from May 25 means postal demand may suffer an accelerated decline, Royal Mail said Thursday. Royal Mail fell 6.6 percent, the biggest intraday drop since November 2016, after issuing the warning on Thursday with its full-year results.