European regulator to probe Apple on eBook price fixing
09 Dec 2011
The European Union's anti-trust watchdog will launch an investigation against technology giant Apple Inc and five other publishers over anti-competitive practice in the e-book market.
The European Commission (EC) will investigate the illegal agreements restricting competition in the EU relating to the pricing of eBooks.
Apart from Apple, the other five publishers under the EC scanner are France's Hachette Livre, German-owned Macmillan, UK publisher Penguin, and US-based Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster.
"The Commission has concerns that these practices may breach EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices," the EC said in a statement.
The UK's Office of Fair Trading has already carried out a similar inquiry, while the US Justice Department on Wednesday launched an investigation to find out whether Apple and the publishers had formed a cartel to fix eBook prices.
The investigations are because of an agreement the five publishers reached with Apple when it introduced the iPad.
