Luxembourg - Amazon.com is poised to settle a European
Union probe into its e-book deals with publishers by changing controversial
clauses, according to regulators.
Amazon won’t
enforce clauses that required publishers to offer it terms as good as or better
than those they sign with other e-book distributors and will avoid them in
future contracts, the European Commission said in a e-mailed statement that
outlined details of the company’s offer to settle the investigation. The pledge
would last five years and would allow publishers end contracts that link e-book
discounts on Amazon to e-book prices on other online stores.
The EU is asking
publishers to give feedback in the next month before it can move toward closing
the case without levying fines or declaring that the company breached antitrust
rules. Companies that break commitments offered to the EU can be fined as much as
10 percent of global revenue.
The e-books
probe has been a distraction for Amazon as it fights a higher-profile case over
its tax arrangements with Luxembourg - one of a series of EU probes targeting
the fiscal arrangements of US tech giants. Apple was ordered to pay 13 billion
euros ($14 billion) in back taxes when the EU ruled against its tax deal with
said it welcomed the agreement with the EU, it said it disagreed with
regulators’ view that e-books don’t compete directly with print books and other
forms of media.
‘Simply wrong’
"The
provisions in question helped to deliver great selection and lower prices to
customers -- the notion that they had the opposite effect is simply
wrong," Amazon said in an e-mailed statement.
Amazon and Apple
managed to shut down a German antitrust probe into audio books deals last week
when they also agreed to drop restrictive terms with publishers. Amazon’s
success in settling the probe contrasts with Alphabet’s Google, which tried and
failed to strike a similar accord with EU regulators investigating its search
engine.
Google’s several
offers of concessions met with fierce opposition from European publishers and
smaller rivals that eventually forced the EU to abandon a settlement.
EU Competition
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager hasn’t shied away from going after big U.S.
companies since taking over as the EU’s antitrust chief in late 2014. While she
dismisses criticism that she’s deliberately targeting US firms, some of her
most high-profile probes concern Amazon, Google and Apple.
Amazon, now the
largest distributor of e-books in Europe, helped pioneer the market with the
introduction of the Kindle device in 2007. The EU opened its probe in June
2015, saying it was checking whether Amazon’s contracts prevent competitors
from developing new products and limit competition between sellers of e-books.
The investigation focuses on books published in English and German.
BLOOMBERG