FTC Forces FleetCor and CEO to Pay $100 Million for Hidden Fees on Small Business Fuel Cards

FleetCor and its CEO Ronald Clarke will pay $100 million to settle the Federal Trade Commission's long fight over fuel card fees that small businesses never agreed to pay. The company, now called Corpay, lost in court twice before reaching this settlement.

The money goes toward redress for business customers. No refunds have gone out yet.

Fees designed not to be noticed

The FTC sued in 2019. It said FleetCor charged customers, overwhelmingly small businesses, hundreds of millions of dollars in undisclosed fees, harming tens of thousands of them. It also misrepresented how much fuel customers would save and how well its fraud controls worked.

The fees were built to slip past busy owners. FleetCor often waited several billing cycles before starting a new charge. Invoices left the fees out, so customers had to dig through separate account reports, where the charges were still obscured or missing.

Some of it was worse. FleetCor charged late fees even when customers paid on time, and even when FleetCor itself had blocked a timely payment.

Two court losses

In 2023 a federal district court granted summary judgment to the FTC on all counts. It imposed a permanent injunction banning FleetCor from billing without express informed consent, hiding charges behind hyperlinks, or making deceptive fuel card claims.

In 2026 an appeals court upheld the ruling against FleetCor on every count. It affirmed the case against Clarke on all but one count, but vacated the injunction as it applied to him. Under the settlement, Clarke agrees not to oppose putting a federal injunction back on him personally.

"FleetCor deceived small business customers by promising fuel savings that never materialized while unfairly charging hidden, unauthorized fees," said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

What happens next

The Commission voted 1-0-1, with Chairman Andrew Ferguson recused. The consent package appeared in the Federal Register on September 22, opening a 30 day comment period before the order becomes final.

Once it does, each future violation can cost up to $53,088 in civil penalties. The case adds to a busy month for enforcers going after money taken from customers, following the CFTC's Cash FX case. For FleetCor, the fight that began in 2019 ends with a nine figure check and a CEO back under a court order.