Retail Fuel Sales in a Regulatory Grey Area: Consumer Protection and Civil Liability Perspectives

Retail fuel sales have evolved into a form of informal energy distribution, driven by the limited reach of Indonesia’s formal fuel distribution system. Despite its growing role in supporting community mobility and microeconomic activities, the practice simultaneously raises legal concerns regarding consumer protection, public safety, and civil liability. This study aims to examine the characteristics of civil legal relations arising from retail fuel sales practices, the implications of the absence of regional regulations on the liability of business actors, and the urgency of developing a more adaptive risk-based regulatory framework. The research employs a normative juridical method strengthened by contextual empirical analysis through statutory, doctrinal, and conceptual approaches related to consumer protection, tort law, and risk-based regulation. The findings show that retail fuel sales create a high-risk private legal relationship because the transaction involves flammable substances distributed without adequate safety standards, metrological supervision, or operational safeguards. The absence of regional regulations has resulted in unclear standards of care, disproportionate allocation of legal risks, and weakened legal protection for both consumers and micro-scale business actors. In this context, Pertamini operates within a regulatory grey area because it functionally resembles a fuel sub-distributor while lacking a clear legal classification within Indonesia’s downstream oil and gas regulatory regime. This study argues for the establishment of a risk-based regulatory framework that recognizes retail fuel sales as a supervised micro-enterprise subject to limited legality, minimum safety standards, proportional supervision mechanisms, and stronger consumer protection measures.