Connecticut’s top law enforcement officer said Wednesday that he was conducting an antitrust investigation into how Amazon runs its e-book business.
Connecticut attorney general William Tong said in a statement that the state has “an active and ongoing antitrust investigation into Amazon regarding potentially anticompetitive terms” in the e-book company’s distribution agreements with some publishers.
The investigation is the latest antitrust investigation against Amazon that has been made public. Officials in California and Washington have checked how the company deals with the independent dealers who use its marketplace. The Federal Trade Commission also has its own investigation into the company, which critics say has become a dominant online retailer by defeating smaller competitors.
An Amazon spokesman declined to comment. The request was reported formerly from The Wall Street Journal.
Amazon started selling books in the 1990s. It represented his Kindle e-books reader The deal quickly caught the attention of regulators. In 2012, the Justice Department sued Apple, saying it had partnered with major publishers to increase the price of e-books above the $ 9.99 Amazon charged.
Connecticut was among the states that filed their own lawsuit against Apple. Mr. Tong, a Democrat, said in his statement that his office “continues to aggressively monitor this market to protect fair competition for consumers, writers and other e-book retailers”.
