Amazon will change its ebook contracts with publishers as EU ends antitrust probe
The EU has reached an agreement with Amazon following an antitrust investigation into the company’s ebook business. In 2015, the European Commission began a probe into the licensing deals Amazon was making with publishers, suggesting that the US giant was forcing them into unfair contracts that stifled competition in Europe’s €1 billion ebook market. In January, Amazon suggested a number of changes it would make to its contracts, and the EU now says it’s happy to accept them, bringing a close to the investigation.
The parts of the contract the EU objected to were a number of “most-favored-nation” clauses. These required any publishers doing a deal with Amazon to reveal the terms of the contracts they made with rival distributers. Amazon…
