Sam Oliver
Regulators with the European Union are reportedly set to accept an offer made by Apple and four book publishers to settle an antitrust investigation.
The deal aims to avoid fines for the companies and will allow retailers that compete with Apple's iBooks — namely Amazon — to sell e-books for lower prices, according to Reuters.
Apple will be joined by Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan in the settlement with the European Commission. The settlement was first proposed in September.
The European Commission already announced months ago that it was willing to drop its probe into an alleged price fixing scheme by Apple and the four publishers after they agreed to let Amazon sell the same e-books at discounted prices for a period of two years.
EU flags flying in front of the European Commission's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. | Source: European Commission
First launched in December 2011, the Commission's inquiry was related to Apple's so-called "agency model," which allows book publishers to set the prices for e-books sold in the iBookstore under a most favored nations clause. That meant the houses couldn't sell their product elsewhere for a lower price.
If the investigation were to have found the companies in violation of European antitrust laws, they each faced penalties equaling up to 10 percent of revenue from global sales.
The anticipated settlement is similar to the counterpart price-fixing case in the U.S. leveled by the Department of Justice in which HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette recently settled for $69 million. Apple, Penguin Group and Macmillan continue to fight the allegations, with both companies asking for a court trial to decide the matter.
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28 Comments
More proof that anti-trust laws are complete hog-wash, and hopefully a court trial will expose this nonsense as such
Price fixing on books the publishers own? I don't get it. I'm not arguing for Apple here, in fact, I think eBooks are a joke. There needs to be some sort of "open book format" established (which will probably never happen) where one can move their books (novels) between platforms, whereby the original platform (and publisher) gets the profit, but using your 'open book format login' on any platform shows your books there for your viewing/reading pleasure/convenience. Being tied to a specific digital book platform is just not right IMO. Apps and text books are different, novels are just text in a specific order.
Price fixing on books the publishers own? I don't get it.
Going after Apple, not Amazon, for price fixing? I don't get it.
Going after Apple, not Amazon, for price fixing? I don't get it.
Amazon has price-fixed eBooks? I don't get it.
[quote name="Ireland" url="/t/154110/european-union-expected-to-accept-apples-e-book-settlement#post_2228020"]Price fixing on books the publishers own? I don't get it. I'm not arguing for Apple here, in fact, I think eBooks are a joke. There needs to be some sort of "open book format" established (which will probably never happen) where one can move their books (novels) between platforms, whereby the original platform (and publisher) gets the profit, but using your 'open book format login' on any platform shows your books there for your viewing/reading pleasure/convenience. Being tied to a specific digital book platform is just not right IMO. Apps and text books are different, novels are just text in a specific order.[/quote] 1) eBooks are a joke? Seriously? 2) EPUB is a free and open standard. Guess who doesn't use EPUB? [quote name="RichL" url="/t/154110/european-union-expected-to-accept-apples-e-book-settlement#post_2228055"] Amazon has price-fixed eBooks? I don't get it. [/quote] Amazon's eBook policies are anti-competive. They were fixing the prices for sale whereas Apple was allowing the distributors set prices.