The UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is investigating online bookseller Amazon’s proposed acquisition of UK-based rival The Book Depository.

The UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched an investigation of pricing by e-book providers. 

A move by online retailer Amazon’s UK arm to switch to ‘agency model’ pricing on some e-books has led to price hikes, angering consumers and prompting them to accuse the publishers of price fixing.

Connecticut's Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, says he believes sweetheart deals between Apple, Amazon and the world’s largest electronic book publishers may be stifling lower prices and competition in the market.

A US district court judge has given technology company Google until 9 November to present an amended settlement with authors and publishers of its controversial plan to create an online library of out-of-copyright books.

Google says it will grant online booksellers the right to sell its digital library of out-of-print and "abandoned" books, should a US court approve a settlement agreement allowing Google to scan and publish them online.

Critics of a settlement agreement between US technology company Google and a group of publishing organisations spoke out today at a hearing at the European Commission, saying that the agreement would create a cartel among publishers and give Google monopoly power over some out-of-print books.