Apple, publishers offer anti-trust concession

Apple and four major publishers have offered to allow retailers such as Amazon to sell e-books at a discount for two years as they seek to close an EU antitrust investigation and stave off possible fines, Reuters reported quoted a person familiar with the matter.

Apple's e-book pricing deals with the publishers attracted investigation by EU antitrust watchdog last December as it found these possibly hampering competition in Europe.

The four publishers Simon & Schuster, News Corp unit HarperCollins, French group Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan in Germany had agreed deals with Apple under which online versions of their books sold for set prices on Apple's iTunes, with Apple taking 30 per cent of the proceeds. The deals barred other retailers, such as Amazon, selling the e-books at a lower price.

The Commission said in April that the five companies had offered concessions in a bid to end the investigation and avert penalties which could reach 10 per cent of their global turnover, without giving details.

Pearson Plc's Penguin group, also under investigation, did not figure among those submitting proposals.

According to the person familiar with the matter, the commission was now sounding out opinions from the industry as to whether the concessions were sufficient, before a formal market test which could lead to the investigation being dropped.