SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY ACCEPTS PUBLISHERS' COMMITMENTS
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
SCHOOLBOOKS: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY ACCEPTS PUBLISHERS' COMMITMENTS.
FROM NEXT YEAR THERE WILL BE NEW MULTIMEDIA EDITIONS AND BOOKS AT REDUCED PRICES. TEACHERS TO HAVE A DATA BASE FOR COMPARING DIFFERENT PRODUCTS. BOOK RENTAL AND RIGHT OF USAGE TO BE POSSIBLE IN ITALY TOO.
Conclusion of investigation launched on 13 September 2007 into the Italian Publishers' Association and subsequently extended to nine publishing houses. The commitments, now made binding, introduce innovations in the school textbook publishing market to stimulate competition and reduce costs for parents.
The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 24 April 2008, decided to accept and render binding the commitments proposed by the Associazione Italiana Editori (AIE, or Italian Publishers' Association) and by nine publishing houses in the context of the investigation launched on 13 September 2007 into alleged anti-competitive conduct in the schoolbook publishing market.
Beginning shortly and as a result of AIE's commitment, secondary school teachers will have free access, using a password, to the entire list of current textbooks for each subject, with information on the author, the publisher, the price and the publisher's contact details. The list is to be available every year from 5 April. This gives teachers a broader and more independent choice and reduces the role of publishers' promotional activities, besides giving greater visibility to the smaller publishing houses.
All the publishing houses involved (RCS Libri, Zanichelli, Mondadori Education, Pearson Paravia Bruno Mondadori, De Agostini, Capitello, SEI, Giunti Scuola and Principato) further undertook to provide innovative learning tools linked to their books or offered separately in order to help contain costs for families. Most of the publishers will use information technology to transfer some of the currently paper-based material onto digital media, thus reducing the number of printed pages and hence production costs. Savings thus obtained should benefit consumers by leading to reduced cover prices.
The development of IT-based tools should also lead to a longer life for school textbooks: updates can be distributed on the digital media without the need to print a new paper edition. This would facilitate the use of texts for a number of years and encourage alternative forms of distribution, such as rental, loans and the purchase of second-hand books.
Some of the publishers (De Agostini, Zanichelli, Capitello, Principato and SEI) also presented undertakings intended to allow the development of a rental market by negotiating agreements with interested renters: this could represent an important opportunity for reducing the cost burden on families.
De Agostini, Principato, Capitello and SEI also declared their willingness to allow the development of book-lending agreements.
In the Authority's view, the commitments proposed, which cover a market worth about Euro 460 million p.a., are such as to address satisfactorily the concerns regarding anti-competitive conduct which gave rise to the investigation. The publishers' association and the publishers involved in the proceeding must present to the Antitrust Authority, by 31 December 2008 and each year thereafter for the following three years, a detailed report on the implementation of their commitments regarding school textbooks.
The commitments agreed to by the companies are available at the following web address: www.agcm.it/i692.htm.
Rome, 3 May 2008