EU makes Amazon e-book parity-clause commitments binding

The Commission’s preliminary view was that clauses in Amazon’s publisher agreements could reduce incentives for competing e-book platforms to differentiate through price, release terms, promotions or business models. Amazon offered not to enforce or introduce the clauses and to let publishers terminate affected contracts.

Confirmed

Case ID: amazon-ebooks-commitments-2017

What the record establishes

The Commission made the commitments binding for five years across the EEA. The Article 9 decision did not conclude that Amazon had infringed competition law, but a breach of the commitments could have triggered a fine without a separate infringement finding.

Sources

  1. Primary recordCommission accepts commitments from Amazon on e-booksEuropean Commission · 4 May 2017 · accessed 11 August 2026

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