Brussels, 11/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 11 June, the European Commission announced that it had opened formal investigation into US online giant Amazon's e-book distribution arrangements.
The Commission will in particular investigate certain clauses included in Amazon's contracts with publishers. These clauses require publishers to inform Amazon about more favourable or alternative terms offered to Amazon's competitors and/or offer Amazon similar or better terms and conditions than to its competitors, or through other means ensure that Amazon is offered terms at least as good as those for its competitors. These arrangements have been in force for a number of years.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: “It is my duty to make sure that Amazon's arrangements with publishers are not harmful to consumers, by preventing other e-book distributors from innovating and competing effectively with Amazon. Our investigation will show if such concerns are justified.” If so, they may infringe competition rules that ban abuse of a dominant position in the market and also ban restrictive trade practices.
Amazon is currently the largest distributor of e-books in Europe. Initially, the Commission's investigation will focus on the largest markets for e-books in the European Economic Area, namely e-books in English and German, in order to get a better view of the situation. (Elodie Lamer)