Kindle and iPad Price Fixing

Ahead of what is expected to be a boom in e-book sales, Amazon and Apple are accused of colluding to fix the price of electronic books depriving the market of competition. “Amazon and Apple are being investigated for allegedly seeking to fix the price of e-books by signing contracts with six of the world’s biggest publishers banning them from selling the digital books to rivals for lower prices. According to the US authorities, such contracts could ‘threaten to encourage coordinated pricing and discourage discounting’. Richard Blumenthal, the Attorney General of Connecticut, has written to both firms demanding a meeting to discuss the allegations.”