BRUSSELS, April 14 (Reuters) – EU antitrust regulators accepted on Wednesday an offer by Sweden’s Svenska Kraftnat to increase electricity trade with neighbouring countries, ending a probe that might have resulted in a fine for the power grid operator.

The European Commission, the European Union’s competition watchdog, opened proceedings against Svenska Kraftnat in April last year, saying the operator might have abused its dominant position and violated EU antitrust rules.

The Swedish monopoly later offered a number of commitments which the Commission market tested in October last year.

Svenska Kraftnat is the sixth European energy company to settle with the Commission on charges of abusing dominant positions. The others were French utilities EDF (EDF.PA) and GDF Suez (GSZ.PA), Italy’s ENI (ENI.MI), and Germany’s E.ON (EONGn.DE) and RWE (RWEG.DE).

Under the commitments, the Swedish grid operator will no longer limit trading and will allow electricity flows to adjust to transmission capacity through market prices, the Commission said in a statement. The Commission has been trying for years to break up national energy champions and provide easier and cheaper access for their rivals to power and gas distribution networks.

“This case…shows the need for all operators of electricity grids to take a European perspective that goes beyond purely national boundaries when trying to address network congestion problems,” Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.

The Commission can fine companies up to 10 percent of their global revenues for breaching EU antitrust rules. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by David Brunnstrom)