EU will investigate two contract clauses between Amazon and some of its book publishers activating in Europe

Jun 11, 2015 12:53 GMT  ·  By
Amazon is under investigation from the EU for shady contract clauses with book publishers
   Amazon is under investigation from the EU for shady contract clauses with book publishers

The European Commission announced it would be launching an official investigation targeting Amazon's eBook operations in the EEA (European Economic Area).

More specifically, the probe targets two clauses found in contracts Amazon has with book publishers. These are "the right to be informed of more favourable or alternative terms offered to its competitors; and/or the right to terms and conditions at least as good as those offered to its competitors," as from the original press release.

The EU is afraid these clauses might limit or prevent competitors from coming up with better pricing points, Amazon being contractually informed of all their activities by the book publishers themselves.

Amazon's long legal battles continue

This is not the first time Amazon is under investigation in Europe, being also under the EU's microscope for asking and receiving custom tax deals in some countries for a series of its products.

The company had also been under a similar antitrust investigation in the US as well, but it won that case after the judge ruled in its favor against a group of indie booksellers.

In that case, the judge explained his decision by Amazon's 60% eBook US market share, which was not enough in his eyes to prove a monopoly claim, but merely poor competition in the market.

If the contract clauses don't show Amazon's intentional strategy at sabotaging competitors and are only a well-thought safeguard, then the same train of thought used by the judge in the US case above cannot be called on, mainly because Amazon has a much smaller piece of the eBook market share in Europe than it has in the US.

The European Commission has not put a deadline on its investigation, but if it lasts as the Microsoft Corp vs European Commission lawsuit, then expect to drag out for a couple of years.

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