Fuel prices are displayed at a gas station in Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap) South Korean prosecutors indicted the country’s four major oil refiners Monday on fair trade charges, including allegations that two of them colluded to raise fuel prices after the outbreak of war between the United States and Iran in March.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office estimated that the alleged collusion by HD Hyundai Oilbank and SK Energy caused 14.2 trillion won ($9.27 billion) in direct anticompetitive impact. Including the ripple effect from GS Caltex and S-Oil following the price hikes, prosecutors said the broader impact reached about 26 trillion won.HD Hyundai Oilbank, SK Energy, GS Caltex and S-Oil were indicted for violating the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act.Prosecutors also indicted four company officials. HD Hyundai Oilbank’s pricing division chief was indicted and arrested, while two other company officials and a GS Caltex domestic sales executive were indicted without detention.According to prosecutors, HD Hyundai Oilbank and SK Energy exchanged pricing information from July 2024 to February this year.Prosecutors said HD Hyundai Oilbank’s pricing division chief and a senior manager exchanged pricing information with SK Energy during that period.The division chief is also accused of agreeing with his SK Energy counterpart in March to sharply raise fuel prices after the US-Israeli war on Iran began.Prosecutors said the refiners already held substantial crude oil reserves at the time, meaning the price hikes were not inevitable despite the war.Under the alleged agreement, SK Energy set its prices 30 won to 40 won per liter higher than HD Hyundai Oilbank, allowing the two companies to raise prices in tandem, prosecutors said.GS Caltex and S-Oil were not accused of directly joining the alleged price-fixing agreement. But prosecutors said the two companies followed the price increases by HD Hyundai Oilbank and SK Energy, contributing to a broader rise in domestic fuel prices.Prosecutors described the conduct as conscious parallelism, a pattern in which competitors make similar pricing moves without direct communication or agreement.They said it may disrupt competition but is not punishable as price fixing under the Fair Trade Act without evidence of collusion.The four refiners were separately indicted over exclusive purchasing contracts with gas stations from January 2021 to June 2026. Prosecutors said the companies used their superior bargaining position to require gas stations to buy only their products and unilaterally notified them of supply prices.Gas stations that bought products from rival suppliers faced disadvantages, including damages claims, cost recovery demands or the suspension of bonus card programs, prosecutors said.Two company officials were also indicted over alleged evidence destruction. Prosecutors said HD Hyundai Oilbank’s legal affairs chief deleted documents containing competitors’ pricing information after learning in advance of an on-site inspection by the Fair Trade Commission. A GS Caltex executive is accused of deleting an internal messenger room used for pricing meetings.