Italy watchdog launches market abuse probe into Italgas

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's competition watchdog said on Wednesday it had opened a probe to see whether gas distributor Italgas had used its dominant market position to prevent or slow down a competitive tender process in areas in the Venice region.In a statement the regulator said slowing down the process would allow Italgas Reti to continue managing the gas distribution services in the areas.The probe will be completed by May 31 next year, it said.