March 4, 2011

The Men in Black visit French Publishers

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The French publishing industry magazine Livres Hebdo announced Monday that the European Commission has launched investigations into major French publishing houses (including Hachette Livres, Gallimard, Flammarion, and Albin Michel) suspected of colluding on the price of digital books.

According to a Publishers Weekly report, “the Commission suspects the companies concerned may have violated EU rules prohibiting anticompetitive practices. All group leaders and executives working on digital books must now respond to these investigations.” Publishers were officially asked to make themselves available for these “men in black” — their new nickname in the industry — while their smart phones, laptops and computers were being removed for meticulous checking.

What makes it even more unbelievable is that the French Senat had approved a law just last October that extended the fixe price (the cover price of print books) to ebooks … “Why then investigate individual firms rather than looking to work with a member state’s government first?” wondered Edward Nawotka in his Publishing Perspective column. Indeed.

MobyLives