7-Eleven Hit with Record $4.5 Million Penalty Over FTC Antitrust Order Violation

Key Takeaways

• Record Penalty: 7-Eleven will pay $4.5 million, the largest civil penalty ever collected by the FTC for a prior-notice order violation.
• Antitrust Enforcement: The settlement stems from a 2018 consent order tied to 7-Eleven’s $3.3 billion purchase of more than 1,100 Sunoco fuel outlets.
• Unapproved Acquisition: The company acquired a fuel outlet in St. Petersburg, Florida and informed the FTC over three years late.
• Compliance Failures: The FTC found 7-Eleven lacked effective internal controls to meet order obligations.
• Future Oversight: The company must divest the location and comply with enhanced prior approval and notice requirements.

Deep Dive

7-Eleven and its parent company Seven & i Holdings will pay a $4.5 million penalty to resolve Federal Trade Commission allegations that the convenience store giant violated a 2018 antitrust consent order by purchasing a competing fuel outlet in St. Petersburg, Florida without giving the agency prior notice.

The FTC says the company’s undisclosed acquisition breached legally binding conditions tied to its $3.3 billion purchase of more than 1,100 retail fuel outlets from Sunoco in 2018. To protect consumers from reduced competition and higher prices, that order required 7-Eleven to divest certain locations and notify the Commission before buying additional fuel outlets in affected local markets, including St. Petersburg.

According to the FTC’s complaint, 7-Eleven went ahead and acquired the St. Petersburg outlet in December 2018, then waited more than three years (until March 25, 2022) to disclose the purchase. Investigators found that the company lacked adequate internal controls to ensure compliance with the order and had failed to implement meaningful systems to track such acquisitions.

The resulting settlement is unprecedented. The $4.5 million payment represents the largest civil penalty ever collected by the FTC for a prior-notice violation, and the largest negotiated settlement for any order violation in the history of the Bureau of Competition.

“Under the Trump-Vance FTC, merger remedies that protect competition are once again on the table,” said Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “7-Eleven failed to fulfill the terms of the FTC’s consent order and is now paying a record price. The FTC will not hesitate to protect the public by actively enforcing order violations and seeking penalties against future violators.”

In addition to the penalty, 7-Eleven was required to divest the St. Petersburg fuel outlet to a qualified buyer. The company also agreed to expanded prior approval and notice requirements intended to strengthen future oversight of any attempts to consolidate fuel markets covered by the original order.

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