It is not renewing various contracts with airlines and hotels to distribute bulks. These are free of charge copies, which have traditionally been used to inflate circulation figures and have long been a source of contention in the newspaper industry.
The Daily Express gave away 61,179 copies in May, accounting for 6.8% of its total circulation of 898,396. This is similar to the proportion of bulks given away by other national newspapers. One of the worst offenders is The Independent, where bulks formed 13% of total circulation in May.
Stan Myerson, managing director of Northern & Shell-owned Express Newspapers, said: "This is an important decision and we challenge rivals to follow our lead and take out the bulks from their own figures.
"The Daily Express and Sunday Express newspapers represent a superb advertising platform in a vitally important area of the market and we do not feel we have to overstate our position by relying on free or discounted copies, as our competitors are still doing."
On the other tabloid Express Newspapers titles, the Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday, the number of bulks has historically been minimal.
Bulk copies are broken out in detailed Audit Bureau of Circulation figures, although they are included in the headline figures.
Since the ABC started registering bulk figures the national newspapers have reduced their use of bulks, while regional newspapers have been capping their use in order to curry favour with advertisers.
May's ABC figures show that the Daily Express handed out 61,179 bulk copies as part of its 854,717 UK and Republic of Ireland circulation, while the Daily Mail racked up 99,894 out of its 2,246,745 UK and Republic of Ireland circulation.
The Sunday Express gave away 71,583 copies out of 874,735, while the Mail on Sunday gave away 80,983 copies out of 2,157,718.
The Daily Star gave away only 192 copies and the Daily Star Sunday just 90 copies.
Express Newspapers and media agencies became embroiled in a row last April following the publisher's reported attempts to raise advertising rates and reduce discounts for the Daily Express after circulation improvements.
Agency press directors hit out at the paper for the number of bulks and overseas copies it included in its circulation figures.
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