EU Almunia: Concerned About Price Collusion Between E-Book Publishers
March 12 2012 - 8:49AM
Dow Jones News
The European Union's antitrust regulator is willing to consider
a settlement if companies it is investigating over the way
electronic books are priced can respond to its objections about the
so-called agency pricing model, the bloc's antitrust chief said
Monday.
"This is a very important investigation because this is a
fast-growing market. We are closely coordinating with the U.S.
[Department of Justice] and we are very happy about our cooperation
with them, both in general and in this case," EU Competition
Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement. "But it should be
clear that on our side there will only be a settlement if
publishers are ready to remove our objections."
The publishing firms involved in the investigation are Hachette
Livre, owned by Lagardere Publishing; Harper Collins of News Corp.
(NWS); Simon & Schuster of CBS Corp. (CBSA); Penguin of Pearson
PLC (PSON.LN); and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck.
The commission opened investigations into the five publishers
and technology giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) over the way they sell
e-books and the agency pricing model in December. Last week the
U.S. Justice Department warned Apple and the same five publishers
that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the
price of e-books, according to people familiar with the matter.
"We are worried about the development of practices that do not
exist for physical books, such as collusion between publishers on
prices," Almunia said. "We are ready to explore a settlement if
there is a possibility, but only if all our objections are
eliminated."
The agency pricing model came about with the launch of Apple's
iPad and was suggested by the late Steve Jobs, Apple's former chief
executive. Under the model, publishers set the book price and Apple
takes a 30% cut.
-By Frances Robinson, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1486;
frances.robinson@dowjones.com
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