Will Apple Be Allowing Access To Amazon e-Books?

Last month brought a not so surprising verdict when a U.S. district court found Apple guilty of being in cahoots with e-book publishers to fix e-book pricing. Well now it seems that the hammer has come down and the verdict is not one that Apple is going to like…

The Department of Justice and 33 state attorney generals have submitted a proposal that recommends termination of publisher agreements that Apple has had in place since the iPad launched. What exactly does this mean? Well, it means that Apple will have to end agreements with five publishers as well as not enter in to any new publisher agreements for the next five years. Additionally, Apple will be prevented from entering in to agreements with any content providers that could cause prices to increase.

Unfortunately for Apple, this agreement also indicates that Apple will be forced to allow linking to other bookstore products (such as Amazon) rather than just directing users to the Apple store.

This proposed agreement has yet to be put in to place but it aims to regulate current anti-competitive behavior by Apple.