It has been informed by the European Commission that it has issued an investigation over the e-book publishing of Apple Inc and units of News Corp, CBS Corp, Pearson Plc and Lagardere SCA.

While shedding light over the cause of investigation, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said that he wants to fight “artificial restrictions imposed by some companies to cross-border trade” which are “particularly important in the digital area where I have already started to look at the distribution practices of certain products such as e –books”.

The investigation will be launched by the European Union antitrust regulators. In the month of February, an investigation was carried out by Britain’s Office of Fair Trading upon complaints received regarding the competition in the industry.

But the European probe was launched by the US Senate Richard Blumenthal six months back. The authorities are of the view that the alleged publishing house has schemed to limit the competition in the market for e-book.

During the investigation, the authorities concerned would be looking into the cases whether or not the alleged companies have signed an illegal agreement. Besides, agreement between the publishers and the e-book retailers would also be a subject of scrutiny throughout the investigation.

Following the announcement by the European Commission, raid was issued at in the offices of several publishers in the month of March. It is hoped that the mystery behind the cases would be solved soon. In many cases, it has been found that the companies indulge in illegal practices which promote unhealthy competition in the market. However, it is yet to be proved whether or not the alleged publishing firms have indulged into any unlawful act to limit competition in the industry.