Does registered mail in France come with insurance? La Poste lost €1,000 package

Reader Question: Someone sent me a parcel using La Poste’s registered post but it has not arrived. The contents of the parcel were worth roughly €1,000. What can I do?

Compensation is available for certain lost or damaged letters or parcels in France, however this can usually only be claimed by the sender and not the intended recipient.

La Poste states that letters sent via lettre recommandée (registered letter) are eligible for compensation if the item was lost, damaged, and/or there was a fault with the tracking of the item.

In this case, compensation depends on the ‘niveau de recommandation’ (level of registration) and not the cost of the items sent.

For domestic mail, this is: R1 €16, R2 €153, and R3 €458. For mail sent internationally, this is: R1 €45, and R2 €150. 

Note that this compensation does not apply to letters sent by standard post and there are different compensation rules for items sent by parcel post services such as Colissimo. 

For the latter, there are two ‘recommendation’ levels, at R1 (€50) and R2 (€200), or otherwise senders can opt for an ‘ad valorem’ service, to insure the value of the contents by increasing amounts of €100, up to €1,000 maximum. 

If the person who sent you the parcel was located in France, they should contact La Poste here.

The sender will need to provide proof the letter was originally sent (through the mailing receipt or bordereau de dépôt), and it can take up to three weeks for La Poste to provide compensation.

For parcels sent through alternative providers, compensation procedures and refund amounts can vary. 

For example, post sent to France from the UK via Royal Mail is covered for between €50 to €250 depending on the insurance package bought alongside postage. 

You may be able to contact the national postal ombudsman in France about the issue – read our article here on how to use the service, available for post sent both through La Poste and many other services.