Tech giant Apple has struck a deal with major publishers in Europe but the European Commission (EC) is reportedly looking into the fine prints of the e-book agreement following allegations of price fixing.

In a statement, the EC said that it has opted to start an investigation on the e-book deal, involving Apple and five major publishers based in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany, to check if they were within the bounds of European trade laws.

Quoting EC spokeswoman Amelia Torres, Agence France Presse (AFP) said on Tuesday that the European probe aims to determine if the Apple deal with the international publishers "had the objective or effect of restricting competition and fixing the price of e-books at a high level in Europe,"

Price fixing, even when explicitly agreed between high-profile companies, constitutes a violation of existing European laws, the EC statement said.

Named as parties with the Apple deal are Simon & Schuster and Harper Collins from the U.S., Penguin from UK, Hachette Livre from France and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck from Germany.

"This is an important issue for consumers, for people like me and you who love to read books, including on an electronic platform," Torres said while adding that the matter is being treated by EC officials with utmost urgency.

Part of its investigation, the EC statement said, is to establish the nature of the deal, specifically its terms of agreement that the Euro body said "may breach EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices."

EC officials added that Apple may have crossed the line when it secured the e-book deal, which could "have the object or the effect of restricting competition in the EU."

The probe was announced following crackdowns conducted earlier this year on several European nations that highlight the proliferation of e-book trading and the likely illegal activities that come with them.

Sale of e-books has become a billion dollar industry, with Amazon mostly dominating its early stages mainly aided by its popular e-reader Kindle and later on by the vastly redesigned Kindle Fire, which has been deployed with new table features.

Apple has practically caught up by designing its bestselling iPad tablet computer to function as an alternative e-reader, directly competing with the stand-alone Kindle, and by putting up its own e-book online outlet, the iBook store.

Deals it forged with major publishers gave Apple a vaunted library where consumers who own the iPad could easily purchase and download their choice of book titles.