The five largest publishers, including Britain's Penguin Group,
face legal action from the US Justice Department for colluding to raise
the prices of electronic books, a source has told Reuters.
Several parties are said to have held talks to settle the potential antitrust case after an investigation into deals signed with Apple by Pearson-owned Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan and News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers.
These publishers adopted an "agency model" in 2010 – around the time that Apple launched the iPad – allowing them to set the price of ebooks. In turn, Apple would take a 30% cut.
In December, the European commission said it was looking at the same five publishers in a potential price-fixing case.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/08/publishers-face-legal-action-ebook-prices
Several parties are said to have held talks to settle the potential antitrust case after an investigation into deals signed with Apple by Pearson-owned Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan and News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers.
These publishers adopted an "agency model" in 2010 – around the time that Apple launched the iPad – allowing them to set the price of ebooks. In turn, Apple would take a 30% cut.
In December, the European commission said it was looking at the same five publishers in a potential price-fixing case.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/08/publishers-face-legal-action-ebook-prices
No comments:
Post a Comment