Apple Gives Way on European E-book Pricing

In a similar case this past September, a U.S. court accepted a settlement with three publishers that allows Amazon to set its own price for e-books (called the “wholesale” model) and struck down the publishers’ preferred “agency” model, under which the publisher set the price and Apple was given a 30% cut of the set price.

The EU settlement re-establishes the wholesale model for two years and prohibits for five years the publishers from forcing rival retailers to sell e-books at Apple prices. EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said:

The commitments proposed by Apple and the four publishers will restore normal competitive conditions in this new and fast-moving market, to the benefit of the buyers and readers of e-books.

Apple, Penguin Group, and Macmillan did not join the U.S. settlement in September and that trial is set to begin early next year.

Paul Ausick