WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a temporary rate hike in the price of sending mail, but says the U.S. Postal Service can't make the increase permanent. 
 
 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday said the Postal Regulatory Commission was justified in 2013 when it allowed rates to jump by 4.3 percent on top of the usual 1.7 percent increase for inflation. 
 
 The Postal Service said the emergency hike was needed to offset losses from the recession of 2007-2009. 
 
 The ruling is a loss for heavy mailers, including newspaper and magazine publishers, catalog retailers and direct-mail advertisers that argued the main cause of the Postal Service's losses was increased use of the Internet. 
 
 The higher rate is expected to end later this year. ||||| The U.S. Postal Service will have to roll back a portion of its largest rate increase in 11 years after a federal court ruled that the higher postage prices in place since January 2014 can’t be permanent. 
 
 Postal regulators had agreed to a 3-cent emergency postage hike for first-class letters, to 49 cents from 46 cents, after the Postal Service said it needed to recoup billions of dollars it lost during the recession. The 4.3 percent increase came on top of the customary 1.7 percent postage prices have risen to adjust for inflation. 
 
 But regulators set a cap on the amount of revenue USPS could recoup with the higher prices. The cap will be reached this summer. 
 
 [Read about the historic rate increase ] 
 
 USPS and the industry representing bulk mailers filed legal challenges as soon as the price increase took effect, with mailers challenging the recession’s justification for higher rates and the post office — which had pressed regulators for a 6 percent increase — arguing that the hike should be permanent. 
 
 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the emergency rates should not become permanent. The aftereffects of the recession have become “the new normal,” the ruling said — and the Postal Service must adjust to that reality. 
 
 “The Commission sensibly concluded that the statutory exception allowing higher rates when needed to respond to extraordinary financial circumstances should only continue as long as those circumstances, in fact, remained extraordinary,” Circuit Judge Patricia Ann Millet wrote on behalf of the appeals court. “The Commission permissibly reasoned that just because some of the effects of exigent circumstances may continue for the foreseeable future, that does not mean that those circumstances remain ‘extraordinary’ or ‘exceptional’ for just as long.” 
 
 But the court also said the Postal Regulatory Commission had acted arbitrarily in calculating that postal officials should collect about $3 billion from the rate increased, and told the commision to re-examine its methods. As of Friday, it was unclear when the rates will be rolled back and by how much. 
 
 “The continuation of the exigent pricing surcharge is critical to the Postal Service’s financial health…” Katina Fields, a USPS spokeswoman, said in a statement. 
 
 The mailing industry claimed victory. “We are happy that the court rejected the Postal Service attempt to make a temporary surcharge last forever,” Stephen Kearney, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, said in a statement. “Maintaining the affordability of mail will help ensure that our nation’s postal system remains healthy for years to come. Stamps should be forever, but not surcharges.” 
 
 Rolling back the price from 49 cents may be easier than it seems. While the price of a first-class letter jumped to 49 cents in January 2014, the Postal Service did not print new stamps to reflect the change. Instead, it relied on its popular line of “Forever” stamps, which now costs 49 cents instead of 46. With the court ruling, USPS will again revise the price of the Forever stamp.
– The price of a postage stamp will soon go back down from 49 cents, thanks to a US appeals court. The US Postal Service instituted a 3-cent increase—its biggest in 11 years—in January of last year in an emergency measure, arguing that it had lost billions in the recession and badly needed to make up for the loss. Regulators agreed, but said USPS could only recoup about $3 billion from the move—and that limit will be hit this summer. The Postal Service had filed a legal challenge to fight to make the increase permanent, but the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagreed, the Washington Post reports. It is not clear when, exactly, the roll-back will occur, but no new stamps need to be printed: The USPS never made 49-cent stamps, but simply sold its "Forever" stamps for 49 cents instead of 46 cents. The court noted that the reasoning for the rate increase was "extraordinary financial circumstances," and those circumstances are no longer extraordinary. The economic situation today, post-recession, is "the new normal," and the USPS has to make it work, the court said. The bulk mailing industry had legally challenged the rate increase, and an industry rep praised the decision: "Stamps should be forever, but not surcharges." Interestingly, when the AP reported the court's Friday move, it framed it as a loss for the bulk mail industry, since the court did uphold the temporary rate hike—a 4.3% increase that came on top of the typical 1.7% for inflation—it just didn't agree with the idea of making it permanent. As for when the higher rate will end, the AP says "later this year."