The iPad is coming out in the UK in two weeks and publishers are worried that Apple’s iBookstore model may be illegal. The Bookseller reports that various publishers are wondering whether what Apple did in the US for iBooks could work in the same way in the UK, considering the market differences and different laws.
“According to Serena Hedley-Dent, partner at London solicitor Farrer & Co, it is essential that the model is seen to be “genuine” to avoid being seen as collusion. She explained: “Within an agency model, you have to know who is actually driving the deal … If [Apple] are imposing their own terms and conditions, their own retail prices, effectively you have collusion among publishers because they are all being signed up on the same terms. Publishers need to make sure if they are signing an agency agreement they are in control of it, and setting their own terms and prices.”
“I’m less concerned by the legal side, than I am about what would work commercially outside the US,” the source said. “The situation is very different in the UK, where Amazon does not have the same hold over e-book sales and where there are not such worries over e-book prices, so it may not prove to be right. We have to make sure that the way we sell e-books is appropriate to each individual territory.”
Will Apple figure out a solution by May 28th? You can bet on it.
[Thanks, Mathias]
