Justice Department Confirms E-Book Probe

The Justice Department confirmed that it is conducting an antitrust investigation into the pricing of electronic books, the latest antitrust watchdog to probe whether there was improper collusion by publishers and Apple Inc. to prevent discounting.

At a congressional hearing, Sharis Pozen, the Justice Department's acting antitrust chief, said: "We are also investigating the electronic book industry, along with the European Commission and the states attorneys general." The Wall Street Journal and other media have reported that the Justice Department has been investigating the matter since last year. However, Pozen's comments were the first time the Justice Department publicly confirmed the existence of the probe. The issue that antitrust enforcers are examining is the agency pricing model, which Apple employed when it introduced its iPad tablet in April 2010. The model allowed publishers to set the prices of their books sold through Apple's iBookstore, avoiding the kind of discounting employed by Amazon's rival service.