GameFly has once again scored a win in its years-long crusade to prove that the U.S. Postal Service is treating Netflix like the popular girl while it had to pay out the nose for similar treatment. A federal appeals court ruled today that Netflix had an unfair advantage because it didn’t have to pay a penny to have its envelopes sorted by hand instead of machine, while GameFly was subject to hefty surcharges for the same treatment.

Handling the movie  or video game rental envelopes by hand is preferable because hands are a lot gentler than machines when it comes to sorting envelopes.

“Rather obviously, this is not without cost to the postal service. Nonetheless, the service provides it to Netflix free of charge,” wrote the judge.

GameFly had received complaints from customers of broken or damaged discs and thus, had asked to be treated just like Netflix. But the postal service was just like, nope, costing the company millions of dollars each year.

The court told the USPS it had better shape up and explain itself or fix the situation, and quick, reports Reuters. It didn’t tell the USPS how it should be handling disks but left it up to the Postal Regulatory Commission to figure out a solution.

“The commission must either remedy all discrimination or explain why any residual discrimination is due or reasonable,” wrote the judge.

Back in 2011 the commission had sided with GameFly but didn’t change anything, added the court. Maybe it just hoped no one would notice.

Netflix gets unfair postal advantage – US court [Reuters]

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