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Amazon under investigation for shady e-book deals

Amazon is the nr 1 retailer of e-books in the EU

Amazon has just found itself in the middle of another investigation from the European Commission, this time regarding its e-book sales and the way it partners with publishers.

The American company is no stranger to legal investigations, for its financial practices as well as its possible abuse of the dominating market position it holds in the e-book market.

The European Commission, is looking into the way Amazon deals with its publishing partners and the way those contracts are written out. One specific area of interest is Amazon essentially forcing publishers to disclose their deals with competitors and offer the company terms equal to those, if not better. One could easily see how publishers, especially smaller ones, could be bullied into doing this with Amazon’s dominant market share essentially forcing them into cooperating.

The Commission’s investigations aims to determine whether such behavior took place, and whether this is detrimental to competition and citizens of the EU. If so, Amazon could end up paying heavy fines and penalties and, of course, be forced to change its practices.

The company said it would collaborate with the investigation, while simultaneously denying all allegations.

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