At a Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday, Sharis Pozen, the acting assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's antitrust division, said the agency was "investigating the electronic book industry" but gave few details.
A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed that the probe involved the possibility of "anticompetitive practices involving e-book sales."
The acknowledgment comes a day after European regulators said they were investigating five of the largest international publishers: France's Hachette Livre, News Corp.-owned Harper Collins, CBS' Simon & Schuster, Britain-based Pearson Group's Penguin and the German-owned Macmillan -- as well as Apple Inc.. Investigators said they were trying to determine whether the companies had "engaged in illegal agreements or practices that would have the object or the effect of restricting competition."
US also investigating eBook price fixing
Posted on Thursday, December 08 2011 @ 20:48 CET by Thomas De MaesschalckEarlier this week the European Commission opened an antitrust investigation into the eBook market and now news hits the web that the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust arm is also looking into potentially unfair pricing practices by eBook sellers. Full details at LA Times.
