Audible, a company owned by Amazon, has had an exclusive deal with Apple for more than a decade. This deal restricted the sale of digital audiobooks to the iTunes platform. The German Publishers and Booksellers Association filed a complaint against this deal in November 2015 as both companies built very strong positions in the audiobook market as a result of this deal. After negotiating with a German competition watchdog, the companies have now decided to end this deal.
Apple and Amazon have terminated the existing deal which means that Audible audiobooks can now be sold to other digital music platforms as well.
The German Publishers and Booksellers Association is of the view that Amazon’s exclusive deal with Apple was not giving publishers the ability to see their work through alternative channels. When the complaint was filed, more than 90 percent of all audiobook downloads in Germany were made through Audible or Amazon websites or on the iTunes Store.
The European Commission is glad that the companies have agreed to settle the matter. It said that it “welcomes an agreement to end all exclusivity obligations concerning audiobook supply and distribution between Amazon’s subsidiary Audible and Apple.”
It believes that scrapping this deal is going to improve the competition in downloadable audiobook distribution in Europe given that Apple can now host audiobooks from other suppliers while publishers will now be able to negotiate their own distribution agreements with Apple.
Filed in . Read more about Amazon and Apple. Source: engadget