EU raids ebook publishers in price fixing investigation | World news | The Guardian

I don’t believe this is just confined to France. At heart, this drives a stake through the argument that big publishing houses can price e-books at the current level (Agency Agreement) in place. 

“The European commission has launched morning raids on several publishing houses suspected of fixing the prices of ebooks, as a huge battle for the future of the sector is fought within the publishing and technology industries.

Officials in Brussels have refused to say how many or which publishers were targeted although a spokesman for Hachette, famed for its dictionaries, confirmed that it was among them. The inquiry is understood to be focused on French companies. 

In a statement, the commission said that it ‘has reason to believe that the companies concerned may have violated EU anti-trust rules that prohibit cartels and other restrictive business practices’.”

Related articles

• EU raids ebook publishers in price fixing investigation (guardian.co.uk)
• EU raids e-book publishers (i-programmer.info)
• UPDATE 3-EU antitrust watchdog raids e-book publishers (reuters.com)
• European Commission raids eBook publishers on suspicion of cartel (eu.techcrunch.com)