EU ends antitrust action over e-books
Action over price-fixing by EU against leading publishers and online retailers is halted after deal is struck
The row over the supposed price-fixing by major e-book distributors has come to an end after the European Commission secured legally binding commitments from Penguin; the last of the major publishing houses and distributors to reach an agreement.
The action began last year when Apple, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette Livre and Macmillan were all accused of fixing the price of digital books as a means of cutting the influence Amazon had over the market.
All the other companies mentioned in the action settled with the Competition Commission in December of last year, while US authorities reached a $69m settlement with the US publishers in August 2012. Penguin-owner Pearson had been holding out, but has finally agreed terms with the EU, giving a significant boost to Amazon.
Announcing the news, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said: “The commitments are now legally binding on Apple and all five publishers, including Penguin, restoring a competitive environment in the market for ebooks.”
The ebook market has grown considerably in recent years, after a sluggish start. Amazon’s Kindle reader has become increasingly popular, while Apple’s iPad has also secured a large proportion of the digital book market.
A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers projected that the consumer ebook market will surpass print by 2017. The report also predicted that sales in the US would be worth around $8.2bn and the EU being even greater.
