Penguin terminates ebook deal with Apple in EU
Penguin has agreed to terminate its ebook agreement with Apple and to allow Amazon to set its own prices for electronic books in a settlement of a European Union antitrust case.
The European Commission accepted the deal with Penguin on Thursday after more than a year of investigations into allegations of cartel price fixing in the ebook market.
Four other ebook publishers—Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette Livre and Macmillan—together with Apple were originally included in the investigation, but they agreed to terms with the Commission last December.
The Commission concluded that an infringement had probably taken place when the five publishers and Apple jointly switched from a wholesale model to an agency sale model. Under a wholesale model, the retailer is free to set the price, but with an agency model, the retail price of ebooks is determined by the publishers.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
http://www.macworld.com/article/2045186/penguin-terminates-ebook-deal-with-apple-in-eu.html#tk.rss_all
