For years, operating an e-commerce delivery startup in Morocco required a rather unorthodox business strategy: shipping sand.
Parcels under one kilogram could only be delivered by Barid Al-Maghrib, the state postal operator, under Law 24–96 — a statute whose roots reach back to a French protectorate dahir of 1924. More than half of all modern e-commerce shipments fall below that threshold. So couriers stuffed packages with salt or sand, crossed the weight line, and got on with the job. It was not elegant. It worked. And it tells you everything about the distance between Morocco’s postal legislation and the market it supposedly governs.
That distance is now, formally, a legislative problem. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce recently submitted Draft Law 036–25 to the Government General Secretariat — a bill that would partially open Morocco’s express delivery market to licensed private operators for the first time. Signed by Minister Ryad Mezzour, it is the most substantive move on postal reform in a decade, arriving almost ten years after an earlier attempt under the El Otmani government expired quietly and unlamented.
The e-commerce sector is welcoming it. Cautiously.
From Courtroom to Parliament
The bill’s arrival did not happen in a vacuum. In recent years, Barid Al-Maghrib deployed Article 87 of Law 24–96 — which criminalises monopoly infringement — against private operators who had grown too visible to ignore. Ecart Services Morocco, which manages Jumia’s local operations, was prosecuted. So was Cathedis, a logistics firm. Both were ordered to comply with a monopoly that the market had long since rendered unworkable. Meanwhile, the state operator happily formed a joint venture with France’s Geopost (Chrono Diali), an irony that caught the eye of the Competition Council over risks of privileged infrastructure access.
Among those summoned was Imad El Mansour Zekri, founder and CEO of logistics startup Cathedis and president of the AMTLM, Morocco’s transport and last-mile logistics association. Being prosecuted, it turns out, did not discourage him. This week, announcing the draft law’s submission, he was unambiguous about what it took: “You don’t change a hundred-year-old rule by asking nicely. You change it by taking a stand.”
Through the AMTLM, Zekri says the sector structured a collective campaign — legal firms, industry players, and policy arguments assembled into a voice that was deliberately framed around ecosystem benefit rather than individual commercial interest. The litigation against Cathedis and Jumia’s operator may have been intended as a deterrent. In retrospect, it functioned as exhibit A in the case for reform.
“Today, the opening of the sector is not a coincidence,” he said.
The State’s “Generous” Concession
Draft Law 036–25, recently submitted by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, proposes a partial end to Barid Al-Maghrib’s ironclad monopoly. It allows private companies to legally collect, transport, and distribute express parcels nationwide.
However, the state isn’t relinquishing its grip for free. The proposed liberalization comes with a few strings attached that look suspiciously like a toll booth:
- The “Privilege” Fee: Authorized private operators will be required to pay a yet-to-be-determined royalty directly to Barid Al-Maghrib. The official reasoning is that this will subsidize the state’s universal postal service in remote areas. In practice, startups will be legally mandated to pay their biggest competitor for the right to compete with them.
- Strict Licensing: Startups must obtain a five-year, non-transferable authorization, proving they have the financial and technical muscle to operate.
- A Capped Playground: The monopoly is only lifted for express delivery. Standard mail, registered letters, and international parcels remain strictly off-limits to private players.
- Steep Penalties: Operating without a license will invite fines of up to 500,000 DH (roughly €46,000), confiscation of equipment, and up to a five-year ban from the sector.
The Number Nobody Has Named
One provision will determine whether this reform produces genuine competition or a well-administered revenue stream for the incumbent. Licensed private operators must pay a redevance — a fee to Barid Al-Maghrib in exchange for market access. Its amount will be set by regulatory decree. The draft law offers no indicative range.
The rationale is defensible: Barid Al-Maghrib carries the universal service obligation, covering low-density and unprofitable routes that private operators will never touch. Cross-subsidising that from fees paid by operators who will concentrate on urban corridors is standard practice in liberalised postal markets. The European framework uses comparable mechanisms.
But the size of this fee will define everything. Set low, a real market emerges. Set high — and it can be set high by decree, with no parliamentary input — and the reform becomes a licensing architecture that enriches the incumbent without threatening its position. The draft law is still an avant-projet, subject to modification throughout the legislative process. The decree-making that follows passage will be less visible and considerably less contested.
This is where the AMTLM’s work may be most needed now. Winning the principle of market opening was one campaign. Shaping the regulations that determine what that opening actually means is a different, longer, and more technically demanding one.
The Larger Pattern
Morocco’s Competition Council has been active on related ground. In September 2025, it authorised Barid Al-Maghrib’s joint venture with Geopost — Chrono Diali — under reinforced surveillance, flagging the venture’s privileged access to state postal infrastructure as a competition risk. The same council extracted binding commitments from Glovo earlier that year following a dawn raid on its Casablanca offices, after a complaint from local competitor Kooul about abuse of dominant position. The commitments included a 30% commission cap and an end to restaurant exclusivity clauses. Kooul is astartup company owned by ORA Technologies, which recently acquired Cathedis.
The Bottom Line
The Moroccan delivery market is undergoing a messy but necessary maturation. For local logistics founders, the end of the 1kg monopoly means they can finally empty the sand out of their packages and operate legally, even if they must now navigate a highly regulated environment that forces them to subsidize the state operator.
Simultaneously, the successful campaign against Glovo proves that local players can effectively leverage the Competition Council to bare its teeth at foreign unicorns.
The playing field is slowly leveling, driven entirely by founders refusing to accept the designated parameters. As Zekri summarized: “Le rôle d’un entrepreneur ne s’arrête pas à son entreprise. Il commence là où il décide d’impacter son industrie.” Being an entrepreneur isn’t just about running a business — it’s about influencing the whole industry.
The harder part of that work is still ahead.
Draft Law 036–25 has been submitted to the Government General Secretariat and has not yet been scheduled for parliamentary debate.