EU regulators are open to a settlement with e-book publishers owned by Lagardere, News Corp. and three other firms if they offer concessions to resolve competition concerns, according to European Commissioner for Competition Joaquin Almunia.
The European Commission has been investigating whether the publishers fixed prices with Apple for electronic books. This might have blocked rivals such as Amazon and hurt consumers, according to the “Reuters” (http://macte.ch/9hJTS) news service.
Under the Commission’s settlement procedures, companies could offer concessions to avert a fine of up to 10% of their global sales. Regulators would then drop their investigation without the companies admitting to any wrongdoing, per “Reuters.”