Apple, Amazon targets of eBook price fixing probe

Electronic book prices set by Apple, Inc. and Amazon.com, the leading eBook sellers, hurt smaller competitors and are unfair to consumers, says Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in a letter he sent this week to the two companies.

The letters are a tool in Blumenthal's just-launched investigation of potentially anti-competitive agreements the electronic media giants reached earlier this year with the country's five largest book publishers. Those deals center on an "agency model" that gives publishers control over the minimum price consumers pay for eBooks. They also ensure that Apple and Amazon will both receive better prices for eBooks than their competitors.