Large companies can be rivals in some fields, but at the same time they can also collaborate together. Previously we have seen it with Samsung, who seems to have all the ballots to stay with the manufacture of the new OLED screens of the next iPhone 8. Amazon, with whom the relationship is currently not going through its best moment, signed a contract almost 10 years ago exclusively with Apple so that the audio books of its company Audible, were only available through iTunes, and that this firm was the only one that could offer this type of books in the Apple book store.
This agreement has achieved that over time both companies were almost the only means of access to this type of content, which on more than one occasion was a problem before the European commission, due to antitrust laws. The German competition platform, pushed by the German Publishers Association, together with the European Commission, has managed to reach an agreement with Apple and Amazon to end this alliance that has been so damaging for third companies. After the completion of this agreement, the books of the Audible company may be acquired through other digital platforms.
This pact between Apple and Amazon ended on January 5, a pact that was signed shortly after the comparison of Audible Book by Amazon in 2008, an alliance that has already sparked the German Publishers Association, which is they were forced to sell their books on alternative channels without as much circulation as iTunes could have. Currently 90% of downloaded audio books in Germany are created by Audible and available through iTunes, which shows the reason for the complaint of the German publishers.
