Brussels has opened a new front in its war over the dominance of America’s
technology groups by launching a formal competition investigation into
whether Amazon’s power over the ebook market in Europe was “harmful”.

Margrethe Vestager, the European Union commissioner in charge of competition
policy, wants to scrutinise the online retailer’s contracts with book
publishers because of concerns that Amazon demands to know too much about
potential competitors and that it could be stifling competition.

She is particularly concerned about “certain clauses” which “require
publishers to inform Amazon about more favourable or alternative terms
offered to Amazon’s competitors” and “to