Penguin has offered to drop its existing agency agreements and let retailers set the retail price of its eBooks in a move to settle with EU regulators.

The European Commission revealed the details in a press release:

In the proposed commitments, Penguin offers to terminate existing agency agreements and refrain from adopting price MFN clauses for five years. In case Penguin would enter into new agency agreements, retailers would be free to set the retail price of e-books during a two-year period, provided the aggregate value of price discounts granted by retailers does not exceed the total annual amount of the commissions that the retailer receives from the publisher.

Penguin follows Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette, and Holtzbrinck who made similar deals in December 2012. (Via The Telegraph UK).

Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, has partnered with Sassy, a children’s product development company, to introduce a new series of interactive eBooks for babies.

The series of books is based on  Sassy’s “Inspiring the Senses” series a line of books designed to teach young babies about patterns, colors, textures, words and designs through reading. There are various levels based on the child’s age and comprehension level. The new line from Grosset & Dunlap will launch with four books this coming fall.

Each book will focus on a different stage of development. There is one for newborns, one for slightly older babies, one for six month olds and one for slightly older toddlers.

Penguin’s revenues were up 1 percent during 2012, and eBooks now represent 17 percent of the company’s global sales, up from 12 percent in 2011, according to preliminary  results published by Penguin’s parent company Pearson.

According to Pearson, Penguin’s eBook revenue is on the rise even more in the U.S. where almost 30 percent of sales revenues come from eBooks, which is up from 20 percent in 2011.

App sales are also on the rise at the publisher. Here is more from Pearson’s financials report: “Pearson Global app sales grew by more than 200% driven by brands including Wreck this App, Mad Libs, Moshi Monsters and LEGO.  DK was Apple’s only trade publisher launch partner for the January launch of the iBooks Author 2 platform and now has more than 50 interactive titles available.”