FleetCor sells fuel cards: payment cards trucking firms, contractors and other small businesses give their drivers so fuel goes on one account. The FTC's case, brought in December 2019, was that the account came with fees nobody had agreed to.
On September 17 the FTC said FleetCor, which now trades as Corpay, and its chief executive Ronald Clarke will pay $100 million to settle the agency's administrative case.
What the company was charged with
From the release: the company "imposed a broad array of unauthorized fees that its customers never knew about and did not agree to pay, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars and harming tens of thousands of customers." Those customers "overwhelmingly are small businesses".
Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection: "FleetCor deceived its small business customers by promising fuel savings that never materialized, while unfairly charging them hidden and unauthorized fees".
A settlement at the end of a decided case
Many FTC settlements resolve allegations no court has tested. This one follows a case the company had already lost in court. The proposed order sets out the history:
| Date | Step |
|---|---|
| December 20, 2019 | FTC sues in the Northern District of Georgia, five counts under the FTC Act |
| August 11, 2021 | FTC opens a parallel administrative case on the same conduct |
| August 9, 2022 | Summary judgment for the FTC on all counts |
| June 8, 2023 | Permanent injunction against the company and Clarke |
| January 6, 2026 | Eleventh Circuit affirms liability against Corpay on all five counts |
The administrative case was opened in August 2021, less than four months after the Supreme Court ruled in AMG Capital Management v. FTC that the provision the FTC had long used to win money in federal court does not allow it. The court case produced an injunction and no money. The $100 million comes through the administrative case.
On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit upheld the findings against Clarke on every count but one and sent the injunction against him back to the district court. Under this settlement, the release says, the company and Clarke agreed not to oppose putting that injunction back in place.
Where the money goes
The release says the $100 million "will be used to provide redress to the company's business customers harmed by its practices." The order adds that if refunds are impractical, or money is left over, the FTC can use it for other related relief, and "Any money not used is to be deposited to the U.S. Treasury."
The court injunction from 2023 already governs how the company operates. It requires express, informed consent before any charge, bans deceptive savings claims, and requires payments to be credited the day they arrive. The company must also answer fee complaints within two business days and ask credit bureaus to delete the delinquency reports it filed from 2015 to 2022.
What is not settled
- Comment first. The Commission voted 1-0-1 to accept the agreement; Chairman Andrew Ferguson was recused. It will be published in the Federal Register, open for 30 days of public comment, and only then made final.
- No admission. The consent agreement "does not constitute an admission by Respondents that the law has been violated as alleged in the Complaint". That covers the administrative complaint. The court's findings from 2022 stand separately, and the appeals court upheld them against the company.
- No refund process yet. There is no claims form, no eligibility rule and no amount per customer.
If your business used a FleetCor fuel card
Nothing to file yet, and no process to watch for. The order requires the company to give the FTC its customer records for refunds within 14 days of a request. Treat any message asking you to pay for a share as a scam.