Brussels, 19/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 19 April, the European Commission invited comments from third parties on the commitments offered by Penguin (Pearson Group, United Kingdom) to alleviate concerns that Penguin may have engaged in an anti-competitive concerted practice affecting the sale of e-books in the European Economic Area (EEA). They are substantially the same as those proposed by Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette, Holtzbrinck and made legally binding by the Commission in December 2012. These five publishers and Apple have offered to end agency contracts for sales of e-books, which the Commission considers to be potentially restrictive and to ensure that, if any new contracts are entered into, distributors would be free to set the prices of e-books for two. The Commission may make the commitments binding on Penguin if its investigation suggests they could alleviate its competition concerns. (FG/transl.fl)