Apple under investigation over e-book agreements
Source: Agencies |
December 7, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE European Union's antitrust watchdog is investigating whether Apple and five major publishing houses have colluded to restrict competition in the market for e-books. The European Commission probe is focusing on potentially anticompetitive practices by publishers Hachette Livre, a unit of France's Lagardere Publishing; Harper Collins, owned by Rupert Murdoch's US-based News Corp; CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster; Penguin, which is owned by UK publishing house Pearson Group; and Germany's Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck.
The commission is to investigate whether these publishing groups and Apple engaged in illegal agreements or practices that would restrict competition. It is also looking into "agency agreements" between the publishers and e-book retailers. In those agreements, publishers set a price for their e-books, with retailers taking a cut of the profits.
Apple Inc runs the iBook online store, in which consumers can buy and download e-books onto the company's devices, including the popular iPad and iPhone. It is a competitor of Amazon.com Inc.
The announcement by the commission follows raids in the offices of several publishers in March and a related probe launched by the UK Office of Fair Trading.
The commission said yesterday that the British agency had suspended its investigation since the commission had taken over the case.
The commission is to investigate whether these publishing groups and Apple engaged in illegal agreements or practices that would restrict competition. It is also looking into "agency agreements" between the publishers and e-book retailers. In those agreements, publishers set a price for their e-books, with retailers taking a cut of the profits.
Apple Inc runs the iBook online store, in which consumers can buy and download e-books onto the company's devices, including the popular iPad and iPhone. It is a competitor of Amazon.com Inc.
The announcement by the commission follows raids in the offices of several publishers in March and a related probe launched by the UK Office of Fair Trading.
The commission said yesterday that the British agency had suspended its investigation since the commission had taken over the case.
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