Spain: CNMC fines 34 publishers for price-fixing guidelines

The National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) of Spain will fine 34 publishers of textbooks, as well as the National Association of Book Publishers and Teaching Materials (ANELE), charging them for coordinating commercial policies through the development of their Code of Conduct. In addition, the CNMC said it had annulled “the agreement between certain publishers to set the price and commercial conditions of digital textbooks reached between ANELE and 10 publishers.”

The economic sanctions proposed by the CNMC amount to 33.8 million euros. ANELE has said that it will seek to overturn the resolution before the National Assembly, regretting what they described as “Practices that could lead to situations of bribery and corruption in the selection and prescription of textbooks.”

Based on a complaint made by the Editorial Vicens Vives, the CNMC explained that “two unlawful conducts have been sanctioned, one infringement in relation to the development and application of the Code of Conduct for the publishing sector, and another infraction in relation to the digital book”, both described as ” very serious “.