Canadian agency expects lower e-book prices after publishers deal

Canada's business competition watchdog reached an agreement with four major e-book publishers that it expects will lower e-book prices in the country.

The Competition Bureau said the publishers have agreed to remove or amend clauses in their distribution agreements with individual e-book retailers that had the effect of restricting retail price competition. The four publishers that have agreed to the deal include Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group Inc; News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers; CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH's Macmillan. The regulatory agency noted that similar settlements between publishers and regulators in the United States since 2012 have resulted in greater discounting of best-selling e-books there.