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Sergey Galyonkin

Tired of expensive Kindle books? You're not the only one...

Amazon have become the latest tech giant to be targeted by crusading EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

ONLINE RETAIL GIANT Amazon has become the latest tech giant to attract the attentions of the EU’s Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

An official European Commission (EC) antitrust investigation into Amazon’s e-book business has been instigated.

This revolves around certain clauses installed in the US retailer’s contracts that require book publishers to inform Amazon about deals they may have with its rivals, thus hampering those rivals’ ability to compete.

“Amazon has developed a successful business that offers consumers a comprehensive service, including for e-books – our investigation does not call that into question,” Vestager said today in a statement.

Belgium EU Commissioner Hearing Margrethe Vestager AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

However, it is my duty to make sure that Amazon’s arrangements with publishers are not harmful to consumers, by preventing other e-book distributors from innovating and competing effectively with Amazon.
Our investigation will show if such concerns are justified.

Amazon is currently the largest distributor of e-books in Europe via its Kindle service.

This is not the first time that the EC has investigated the e-books sector.  In December 2011 the Commission opened proceedings against Apple and five major publishing houses for allegedly colluding to limit price competition for e-books.

This led to commitments from the various companies which addressed those concerns.

Vestager herself is gaining a reputation as the scourge of enormous companies.

In the last two months alone, she has announced war on geo-blocking (the practice of making online content exclusive within countries via IP address), accused Google of abusing its status in corporate competition, and threatened fines of €10 billion for Russian energy behemoth Gazprom for similarly abusing anti-trust laws.

A lady who likes a challenge obviously.

Amazon in UK sales switch PA Wire / Press Association Images PA Wire / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

She has been accused of specifically targeting American businesses although she denied this in an interview with the BBC earlier this month.

The news is another headache for Amazon however, which has endured a tough couple of months.

In May the company officially set up a UK office (despite already employing 6,000 employees there) so as to process sales (and therefore taxes) through that jurisdiction rather than Luxembourg as was previously the case.

Read: Google’s self-driving cars have been in 12 accidents, but none were their fault*

Read: Spotify responds to Apple Music’s launch by saying it now has 75m users

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31 Comments
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    Mute Katie Gallagher
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    Jul 25th 2014, 9:24 AM

    “The scale of the problem”… Brilliant

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    Mute Eddie Nolan
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    Jul 25th 2014, 10:04 AM

    Those shops are codding us with their labels…

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    Mute David-Paul Niland
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    Jul 25th 2014, 10:34 AM

    You tell em ed!

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    Mute Bill
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    Jul 25th 2014, 9:03 AM

    Time to lockout all Irish rail workers until they learn manners, a few months going hungry would help them reevaluate their priorities

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    Mute Declan Crowe
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    Jul 25th 2014, 9:45 AM

    note to Obama, a company is not a person and therefore cannot renounce their citizenship

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    Mute Robert Rusk
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    Jul 25th 2014, 9:51 AM

    Not what you meant, but notable http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood

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    Mute John Smith
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    Jul 25th 2014, 11:21 AM

    A reasonable and sensible addition of information to a comment thread!? Get out of here Robert, there’s no place for your kind here.

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Jul 25th 2014, 7:51 PM

    Note to Declan…wake up.Corporations have been people since before Obama’s presidency

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    Mute Ken Fallon
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    Jul 25th 2014, 9:09 AM

    mislabelling of fish in shops gets gets a mention on 9 at 9 but nothing about the poor 13 year old boy who drowned in drogheda yesterday, well done the journal.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Jul 25th 2014, 9:10 AM

    Hi Ken, that was the top story in our News Fix last night: http://jrnl.ie/1588309

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    Mute Ken Fallon
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    Jul 25th 2014, 9:36 AM

    sorry nicky my mistake you can remove that comment if you wish

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    Mute Jack Dooley
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    Jul 25th 2014, 10:28 AM

    The fish packaging saga, the scale of the issue is not yet know! Oh the puns they hurt!

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