European Commission anti-trust officials are looking into the ongoing contract negotiations between Amazon and Hachette, Reuters reports. EU’s Competition Commissioner told reporters that they are “trying to understand what’s going on there.” Given that one of the affected books is UK author Joanne Rowling’s latest titles, it’s easy to see why there might be more than a little concern.

That being said, experts doubt the European Commission will actually get involved in what amounts to a business dispute. Nonetheless, I imagine it might put pressure on Amazon and Hachette to show some progress.

As Nate points out at The Digital Reader, it is a bit odd that there’s no mention of Amazon’s similar dispute between native European publisher Bonnier.

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