UK Energy Suppliers Actions are Legal: watchdog

Britain's largest energy suppliers have acted in line with competition laws, the country's anti-trust watchdog said on Tuesday in its preliminary findings of an anti-trust probe.

"The presence of vertically integrated firms does not have a detrimental impact on competition," the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.

A year ago, the CMA launched an investigation into whether Britain's six largest energy suppliers, which hold around 90 percent of the market, are abusing their dominant market position.

The six utilities are now unlikely to face the worst-case scenario of being broken up. The companies are SSE, Scottish Power, Centrica (CPYYY), RWE npower, E.ON and EDF Energy.

Reporting by Karolin Schaps