EU Almunia: Concerned About Price Collusion Between E-Book Publishers

The European Union's antitrust regulator is willing to consider a settlement if companies it is investigating over the way electronic books are priced can respond to its objections about the so-called agency pricing model, the bloc's antitrust chief said Monday.

"This is a very important investigation because this is a fast-growing market. We are closely coordinating with the U.S. [Department of Justice] and we are very happy about our cooperation with them, both in general and in this case," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement. "But it should be clear that on our side there will only be a settlement if publishers are ready to remove our objections."

The publishing firms involved in the investigation are Hachette Livre, owned by Lagardere Publishing; Harper Collins of News Corp. (NWS); Simon & Schuster of CBS Corp. (CBSA); Penguin of Pearson PLC (PSON.LN); and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck.

The commission opened investigations into the five publishers and technology giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) over the way they sell e-books and the agency pricing model in December. Last week the U.S. Justice Department warned Apple and the same five publishers that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of e-books, according to people familiar with the matter.

"We are worried about the development of practices that do not exist for physical books, such as collusion between publishers on prices," Almunia said. "We are ready to explore a settlement if there is a possibility, but only if all our objections are eliminated."

The agency pricing model came about with the launch of Apple's iPad and was suggested by the late Steve Jobs, Apple's former chief executive. Under the model, publishers set the book price and Apple takes a 30% cut.

-By Frances Robinson, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]