EU antitrust regulators, working closely with Britain's OFT (Office of Fair Trading), inspected eBook publishers in several countries on Tuesday. The companies were under suspicion of forming a cartel, or price-fixing.
According to the Associated Press, the European Commission said Wednesday it had "reason to believe that the companies concerned may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and other restrictive business practices."
The OFT opened their own investigation in January into eBook sales arrangements between certain publishers and some retailers, to see if they breached competition rules.
The unannounced inspections don't necessarily indicate that any of the publishers broke any laws, but were a preliminary step. If any of the publishers have been price-fixing, however, they will incur fines.
According to an AFP interview with Amelia Torres, spokeswoman for Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, they did not name publishing houses or the countries "because we are just at the beginning of the inquiry. We are not accusing anyone and we do not have any proof."
However, it was confirmed that that Penguin, HarperCollins, and Bertlesman were not raided by the EU.