Attempts to reach an agreement to create a centralised deal for ebook lending in the Netherlands have broken down. The participating library organisations and publishing representatives failed to find common ground on a number of key issues, including lending fees, the number of digital copies libraries could access and DRM.
Libraries are now free to reach their own deals directly with individual publishers.
Publisher Jürgen Snoeren, writing on the Futurebook blog, believes that ebook lending will now develop quite rapidly in the Netherlands.