The European Commission is open to settling an antitrust complaint against Apple and a handful of e-book publishers, but only after all allegations about conspiring on e-book pricing are addressed. Meanwhile, the EU is beginning to collaborate with the US Department of Justice regarding a similar case on this side of the pond, with the EU's Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia telling reporters on Monday that the two departments are working closely with one another to investigate the case.

"Because the e-books market is growing very fast, we are worried about the development of practices that do not exist for physical books, such as collusion between publishers on prices," Almunia said, according to Macworld. "This possibility of a settlement is only open in the case the publishers will be ready to remove all our objections," he added, as noted by the Vancouver Sun.

The EU began investigating Apple in December in order to look into whether Apple had colluded with publishers to keep e-book prices artificially high—a violation of the EU's competition rules. The other publishers involved in the complaint are the News Corp-owned Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Pearson's Penguin, Hachette Livre, and Macmillan. The case made its way to the US last week when it came out that the US Department of Justice was preparing to sue Apple for the same accusations.

The investigation is gathering steam now that the two agencies are working together. As part of the EU's settlement options, the companies in question have the opportunity to offer concessions in order to avoid fines or being forced to admit wrongdoing. Almunia claimed that there were no talks in place to settle the case yet, however, and given the quotes he gave to reporters, it sounds as if the EU wants answers on whether any illegal agreement is in place before agreeing to a settlement.