It is reported that after months of investigation of pricing collusion between Apple and electronic book publishers, the Justice Department is negotiating with publishers about possible solutions and is likely to file a lawsuit.
Antitrust officials have got down to investigating whether Apple and the five publishers has ever agreed to work together to raise the price of electronic books. A day earlier, the competition committee of the European Union said that it was carrying on an investigation of Apple and five publishers over whether they had made illegal agreements to restrict pricing on e-books.
Sharis A. Pozen, the acting director of antitrust division of the Justice Department set up a subcommittee to look into the electronic book industry in December. Ms.Pozen plans to leave Justice at the end of April. One person close to the investigation who has no authority to discuss the case in public but said that the department was hoping to reach a decision before she departed on whether to file a lawsuit against five publishers if a settlement was not reached by then.
When Apple introduced the iPad in 2010, Apple turned e-book selling into a so-called agency model, where the publisher sets the price and Apple takes a 30 percent cut. That was totally different from Amazon's strategy, where it bought books from publishers at nearly half the cover price and then set its own retail price, often offering sharp discounts.
While Apple told publishers that it was impossible for them to sell their e-books more cheaply elsewhere. Therefore, It leads to have the Justice Department believe that the publishers and Apple worked together to raise prices. According to the Journal, the companied denied the fact and European antitrust regulators are conducting a similar investigation.

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