As to the european case, note that the euros (no friends of Amazon) are in lockstep with the DOJ on this:
Quote:
"This possibility of a settlement is only open in the case the publishers will be ready to remove all our objections," European Commissioner for Competition Joaquin Almunia told reporters.
He said EU regulators were co-coordinating with U.S. counterparts, which are also looking into such pricing deals under an agency model adopted in 2010 in which publishers set the retail price.
Under the Commission's settlement procedures, companies could offer concessions to avert a fine of up to 10 percent of their global sales.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...82B0JP20120312
And, I suspect that past european "protection" of small shops is not the best precedent to bring up in a price-fixing case where *all* the cartel members are giant multinationals like the BPHs and Apple.