Publishers Offer Deal in European Ebooks Probe

Because bureaucrats should be extorting pricing models from businesses

Four of the publishers in the Europe's antitrust ebooks price-fixing probe, along with Apple, have offered to scrap their agency model in Europe and allow retailers to set any price they want for ebooks. The offer, if accepted, would hold good for two years. The parties have also offered to suspend "most favoured nation" clauses for five years.

The publishers - Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, the Hachette Book Group – made the offer last month, but it's been disclosed by the European Commission today.