The European Union has announced its inspectors raided several telecommunications companies this week to see if the Internet providers have abused a dominant market position.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said Thursday that the raids centered on Internet connectivity — how providers use wholesale services to connect their customers with websites.

Such raids are an initial step in investigations to see if abuse effectively takes place and the Commission insisted it did not mean any of the companies raided were guilty of anti-competitive behavior.

The European Commission has wide ranging authority in such probes and its fines can sometimes reach in the hundreds of millions of euros.