Amazon and Apple "have abolished contractual obligations around the world that required the two companies to supply and distribute audiobooks solely with each other, under pressure from European Union antitrust regulators," the Wall Street Journal reported. The agreement was struck January 5, but made public yesterday as Germany's competition watchdog, the Bundeskartellamt, dropped its formal probe into the companies' arrangements.
The "exclusivity obligations" required Apple to source audiobooks only from Audible, which was prevented from supplying its audiobooks to other digital platforms besides Apple's iTunes store. Bundeskartellamt head Andreas Mundt said the "exclusivity agreement affected the sales opportunities of audiobook publishers since, apart from Audible, there were few alternative purchasers available." Removing the obligations "will enable a wider range of offer and lower prices for consumers."
The European Commission agreed that the deal should "improve competition in downloadable audiobook distribution in Europe."
An Audible spokesman commented: "We look forward to continuing to offer customers our unmatched selection of hundreds of thousands of audiobooks in the Apple iTunes store, and to working with our many content providers and audio partners."
Alexander Skipis, head of the Börsenverein, the German publishers, wholesalers and booksellers association, said, "We very much welcome that the two companies have given up their exclusivity agreement and that iTunes is open for other audiobook providers."
Michele Cobb, executive director of the Audio Publishers Association in the U.S., praised the agreement: "Competition in the marketplace is always a good thing. We're seeing more retailers selling audiobooks and coming to market with different business models. This decision should help that growth."
New York literary agent David Black told the Journal that authors should benefit from a more competitive retail environment: "This allows for wider distribution, which means more people will be aware of books, and that can only be a good thing."