FleetCor Technologies and its chief executive, Ronald Clarke, have agreed to pay $100 million to settle a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission over the company’s failure to disclose certain charges on commercial fuel cards. The settlement follows years of litigation over fees regulators said were charged without adequate disclosure and affected tens of thousands of small-business customers looking to cut their operating costs.
Federal regulators accused the company, now known as Corpay, of racking up hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized fees. The company is accused of improperly charging consumers late-payment penalties even when they paid on time or when they couldn’t pay because of something the company did.
The FTC also objected to FleetCor’s claims about savings on fuel, fraud control capabilities and other card-related costs. The practices allegedly took place nationwide, affecting small-business operators across the United States, the agency said in a 2019 complaint.
One of the main problems, the regulators said, was the timing and presentation of the fees that FleetCor charged. The FTC said the company frequently took multiple billing cycles to process some charges, making it harder for customers to detect extra fees on their accounts.
The agency said the fees were not clearly disclosed on invoices. Instead, customers were directed to separate account-management reports in which some fees were difficult to locate because they were buried among other information or not disclosed at all.
“FleetCor told small business customers they would get fuel savings that never came,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
FTC officials also cited what they called hidden and unauthorized fees. The settlement will provide redress payments to affected business customers.
In 2023, the FTC scored a major legal victory when a federal district court granted summary judgment in its favor on all counts. The court found that FleetCor engaged in conduct including undisclosed charges, false representations about savings, fees and fraud-control features.
That permanent injunction barred FleetCor from charging customers without their informed consent and clear disclosures. The order also barred the company from making false claims about its fuel cards or using hyperlinks to conceal material information.
How courts have defined the terms
In 2026, a federal appeals court affirmed the judgments against FleetCor and the permanent injunction. The appellate panel also upheld all but one of the charges against CEO Ronald Clarke. The court lifted the restrictions on Clarke.
But as part of the settlement being proposed, FleetCor and Clarke agree not to oppose new restrictions on the executive.
The consent agreement requires FleetCor and Clarke to pay $100 million in redress to business customers . The FTC commissioners approved the settlement package by a vote of 1-0-1. FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson recused.
The agreement will be published in the Federal Register and opened for public comment for 30 days. The commissioners will then vote on whether to make the order permanent.
The FTC has not yet set individual eligibility criteria, the amount each customer will receive or when the payments will be made. Meanwhile, consumers hoping for news on possible restitution should keep an eye out for official FTC announcements.
The civil penalties for each subsequent violation could be as high as $53,088 per violation.
Why it’s important
Fuel-card costs can directly impact carrier margins and cash flow, so transportation operators need to be assured of their billing and payment terms.
The FleetCor case additionally emphasizes the need to regularly review fuel-card invoices, compare vendor charges to contract terms and put strong controls on payment-service providers. Delayed, difficult to identify or poorly disclosed fees can materially impact operating costs for small businesses with thin profit margins and undermine confidence in the essential payment systems.
