The European Commission said it raided several German publishers and Austrian media retail chain Libro yesterday in an investigation into alleged collusion against internet booksellers.

EC inspectors visited Verlagsgruppe Bertelsmann in Munich, Aufbau-Verlag in Berlin, book wholesalers KNO and K&V in Stuttgart and the German book trade association in Frankfurt, as well as Libro's headquarters near Vienna, an EC spokesman said.

The inquiry potentially has major implications for the future of internet book sales in the two countries and beyond and follows a bitter dispute with the Brussels authorities that seemed to have been resolved earlier this year.

The EC said the aim was to investigate allegations of collusion between the publishers and wholesalers to boycott internet booksellers that undercut fixed book prices through cross-border sales to consumers in Germany.