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The agency model has come under increased scrutiny in the UK following the news that Amazon was poised to launch a co.uk Kindle Store, with the retailer insisting publishers will not be able to set the price of e-books.
One publisher told The Bookseller Apple had already begun to soften its agency terms prior to Amazon's move. He said: "There seems to be some movement on Apple's part in trying to accommodate multiple models by other publishers. However, the obligation is now on the publisher to ensure consumer price equity between the models."
"That is a big change—they are saying you don't have to move anyone else to the agency model—you just have to make sure Apple's price is at parity or better than any other retailer."
He added this change was "movement in the right direction", but stressed it was still "wildly unfair to other retailers" who take the hit of discounting a book on promotion. It also harmed publishers themselves, because of Apple's approach of splitting the proceeds after a sale.
"They need to go the rest of the way, to a standard distribution model where they can lower prices [rather than it being down to the publisher]," the source said. "I want to sell my books to a distributor at a certain price—what they do from there should be down to them, rather than us."
Despite these reservations, the change in tack may come as a welcome step for publishers in light of Amazon's stance, which came ahead of the launch of the new model Kindle and co.uk e-book store on 27th August.
Senior vice-president for Kindle Steve Kessel said, unlike in the US where the top five publishers set their e-book prices, Amazon would dictate the price of its e-books, which would be the lowest in the market. He also predicted Kindle sales of a book would outstrip its paperback sales by next year.
The Kindle was launched internationally in 140 countries last October. When asked why it took the best part of 12 months to launch a UK Kindle store, Kessel said: "We wanted to build a great local experience but it takes time to get together a book selection of more than 400,000 titles."
This week also saw a second US state launch an investigation into Apple for price fixing. Connecticut attorney-general Richard Blumenthal is also looking at Amazon, which has been forced to put its prices up as a result of publishers adopting the agency model.
Blumenthal demanded Amazon and Apple address concerns over these arrangements, saying they "appear to deter certain publishers from offering discounts to Amazon and Apple's competitors—because they must offer the same to Amazon and Apple".
This is the second investigation into potential breaches of competition laws by Apple, following the Texan authorities' move in June. Serena Hedley-Dent, partner at law firm Farrar & Co, said: "The more states that get involved, the more likely it is that the federal competition authority would look at it".
However, George Walkley, digital director at Hachette UK, one of the few publishers to have signed up with Apple in the UK, said: "We have taken very considerable legal advice and have been assured the agency model is legal in the UK and Europe." He declined to comment further.