A problem that finally seems to be taken seriously, now Neelie Kroes expressed she supports a study of the EIBF (European and International Booksellers Federation), which states that there are too many different devices and file formats in Europe (but just as good elsewhere), which gets in the way of the development of e-book sales, and recognizes that this diversity of systems makes e-books non-interchangeable. Consumers who have purchased e-books from Amazon, cannot transfer them to their Kobo reader (for instance when they have decided to continue their digital future with them), and vice versa. Or consumers who have purchased e-books from the iBookstore, cannot transfer them to their Sony Reader (although the reverse is possible in The Netherlands). The study states that every consumer should always be able to transfer its collection of digital books to another retailer. In other words: you should be able to export and import your e-book collection. For now, this is not in the interest of the large gardens with high walls (the ecosystems that listen to names as Amazon, Apple, Kobo and Nook), but in those of the consumer. But I dare to say it should be in interest of the retailers as well, which at this moment try their best to keep the customer within their walls. Because if e-books do become interchangeable, more people would start to read digitally than currently is the case.

Source: From format war to sustainability fight by Timo Boezeman, May 30th 2013.