At least the EU has an effective competition agency unlike the US where cartels are left to flourish.

I've been looking at ebook pricing for a while, and while you might think that an ebook should be a lot cheaper than a paper book, it ain't necessarily so. Only about 15% of the cost of a paperback is the actual paper and printing (which is why unsold paperbacks aren't returned to the publishers, but just have the covers torn off and returned for a credit, while the bulk of the book is pulped) - the rest of the cost goes towards the authors' royalties (meagre as they may be) and the cost of proof-reading, editing, and typesetting the book is the same regardless of how the book is published. In the UK we also have the situation that ebooks are subject to 20% VAT, while physical books are exempt from the tax. That said, I would still look for a discount on the price, since you can't sell your ebooks on the second-hand market (and I'd want an even steeper discount if an ebook is encumbered with DRM, which is just a pain, restricting how you read something you've already paid for).

All digital content should be less expensive than their pulp counterpart as there is not tangible item and there is no resale value unless someone comes up with a virtual yard-sale to sell unwanted virtual media.

The honest price would be a quarter of the publish price i.e. £12.99 would become around £3.25
The publishers see it as a change to grab extra profits from us lemmings.

This helps to add weight to my belief that e-book self-publishing at a keenly competitive price was, in every respect, the right move for me to make.

I cannot see why you should have to pay more than the price of a paperback book (about £5).