Six Companies Including SK Energy Colluded in Fuel Bidding for US Forces Korea... Corrective Order Issued

Fair Trade Commission "Already Sanctioned in the US... Excluding Imposition of Fines and Prosecution"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 17th that it will issue corrective orders to six companies, including SK Energy, for colluding in fuel bids for the U.S. Forces Korea.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, from April 2005 to July 2016, six companies?SK Energy, GS Caltex, Hyundai Oilbank, S-Oil, Jiosin Korea, and Hanjin?agreed on the winning bidders and bid prices in five rounds of bidding conducted by the Defense Logistics Agency under the U.S. Department of Defense and executed these agreements.

They distributed the quantities to be won and delivery areas through meetings and phone calls. In this process, 280 million gallons (260 million gallons of diesel, 20 million gallons of gasoline), equivalent to 1.06 billion liters, of fuel were subject to quantity collusion.

The Fair Trade Commission stated that since 2005, an obligation was introduced in the fuel supply bids for U.S. Forces Korea to maintain and manage the balance of fuel tanks in delivery areas at 40% or higher.

To comply with this obligation, domestic companies had to frequently check and replenish regional balances, but it was difficult to predict how much maintenance and management costs would be incurred at the time of bidding.

Accordingly, the companies held meetings to discuss supply price forecasts and contract fulfillment plans, and during this process, they reached agreements on quantity and delivery area distribution, the Fair Trade Commission explained.

The Fair Trade Commission decided to issue future conduct prohibition orders to the six companies that violated the Fair Trade Act and to mandate that CEOs and executives responsible for petroleum sales undergo at least two hours of Fair Trade Act education annually for three years.

However, the Fair Trade Commission stated, "Considering that the companies have already been sanctioned in the United States for the same conduct, fines and criminal charges have been excluded."

The U.S. Department of Justice imposed a total of 230 billion KRW in civil damages and 170 billion KRW in criminal fines on the six companies for violating antitrust laws.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.