The European Commission is inviting comments from interested parties on commitments offered by four international publishers and Apple on improving competition in the e-books market. The publishers are Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette Livre and Holtzbrinck (owner of Macmillan). The proposed commitments aim to alleviate concerns that these companies may have engaged in anti-competitive collusion affecting the prices of e-books. If the market test confirms that the commitments are suitable to address the Commission's competition concerns, the Commission may make them legally binding on the companies.
The Commission has concerns that a switch to a new form of distribution contract by all the publishers may have been the result of collusion, with the help of Apple, and may have aimed at raising retail prices of e-books or preventing the emergence of lower prices at rival platforms. The five companies have offered to terminate the agency agreements and refrain from adopting price 'most favoured nation' clauses for five years. This is expected to give retailers more freedom to determine their own prices for e-books. The proposal is open for comments for one month.
