EU watchdog raises concerns over e-books price collusion

Apple and four major publishing houses are offering concessions to the European Union's antitrust watchdog to ease concerns that they may have illegally colluded to raise prices for e-books.

The EU Commission opened an antitrust probe into Apple Inc. and the e-books publishers last December and said Wednesday it was inviting comments from other parties in the sector over the next month.

The four publishers are Hachette Livre, a unit of France's Lagardere Publishing; Harper Collins, owned by Rupert Murdoch's U.S.-based News Corp.; CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster; and Germany's Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan.

If ultimately approved, the publishers' commitments would be legally enforceable and could bring an end to the case.

AP