SEOUL, July 6 (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors said they indicted the country's four oil refiners on charges of fuel price collusion, estimated to have caused anti-competitive harm worth $17 billion, Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday, citing the prosecution.
The companies are HD Hyundai Oilbank, SK Energy, GS Caltex and S-Oil, Yonhap said.
A spokesperson at Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office did not respond to a Reuters phone call and text message seeking confirmation of the report.
The prosecutors alleged that pricing managers at HD Hyundai Oilbank and SK Energy colluded on prices for their petroleum products shortly after the outbreak of the conflict in Iran earlier this year, Yonhap said. They discussed the scale and timing of price increases, Yonhap said.
GS Caltex and S-Oil also followed their pricing, Yonhap reported.
The total value of the anti-competitive effect was estimated at 26 trillion won ($17 billion), Yonhap said, citing prosecutors.
SK Innovation, the parent of SK Energy, declined to comment. S-Oil had no immediate comment. HD Hyundai Oilbank and GS Caltex did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The country's antitrust watchdog, Korea Fair Trade Commission, earlier this year raised the penalty for collusion to at least 10% of sales related to the violation, up from a minimum of 0.5% previously.
($1 = 1,527.3600 won)
(Reporting by Heejin Kim; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Sonali Paul)
