Corpay, CEO Agree to Pay $100 Million to Resolve FTC Fuel Card Case

Key Takeaways

• $100 Million for Customer Redress: Corpay, formerly FleetCor, and CEO Ronald Clarke agreed to pay $100 million to resolve an FTC administrative action, with the money intended for business customers harmed by the company’s practices.
• Hidden and Unauthorized Fees: The FTC alleged FleetCor imposed undisclosed or unauthorized fuel card fees totaling hundreds of millions of dollars and affecting tens of thousands of customers, overwhelmingly small businesses.
• Federal Courts Backed the FTC: A federal district court entered summary judgment for the FTC on all counts in 2023, and an appeals court upheld the judgment against the company on all counts in 2026.
• Permanent Restrictions Remain: Corpay is prohibited from billing customers without express informed consent, obscuring material information about charges behind hyperlinks, and making deceptive claims about its fuel cards.
• Settlement Addresses Administrative Action: Corpay and Clarke also agreed not to oppose the reimposition of a federal court injunction against Clarke.

Deep Dive

Corpay, formerly known as FleetCor Technologies, and CEO Ronald Clarke have agreed to pay $100 million to resolve a Federal Trade Commission administrative action stemming from the company’s fuel card practices, years after the agency first accused it of charging businesses hidden or unauthorized fees.

The money is intended to provide redress to business customers harmed by the practices, according to the FTC. The agreement follows a federal court judgment against the company and a 2026 appeals court decision that upheld the judgment against Corpay on all counts.

The case reaches back to 2019, when the FTC sued FleetCor over fuel cards marketed largely to small businesses. The agency alleged that the company promised customers savings on fuel while imposing an array of fees that customers did not know about and had not agreed to pay. According to the FTC, those charges amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars and affected tens of thousands of customers.

The allegations went beyond the existence of the fees themselves. The FTC said FleetCor sometimes waited several billing cycles before beginning to impose certain charges, making them less conspicuous to customers. Invoices did not disclose that some fees were being charged, the agency alleged, leaving customers to consult separate account-management reports where charges could be buried among other information or omitted altogether.

The agency also alleged that FleetCor charged late fees to customers who had paid on time or had been prevented by the company from making timely payments. It accused FleetCor of misrepresenting the fuel savings available through its cards, along with their fraud-control features and associated fees.

The dispute moved decisively in the FTC’s favor in federal court. In 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia entered summary judgment for the agency on all counts, finding that FleetCor had charged hidden or otherwise unauthorized fees and made misrepresentations about fuel savings and fees. The resulting injunction imposed lasting restrictions on how the company could charge customers and describe its fuel cards.

Under that injunction, Corpay cannot bill a customer for a charge without obtaining express informed consent and providing clear and unavoidable information about it. The company is also prohibited from placing material information about charges behind hyperlinks and from making deceptive claims concerning its fuel cards.

Corpay and Clarke appealed. In January 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the judgment against Corpay on all counts and left the permanent injunction against the company in place. The appeals court affirmed the judgment against Clarke on all but one count, while vacating the injunction as it applied to him.

The new FTC agreement addresses the administrative proceeding that remained alongside the federal litigation. Corpay and Clarke must pay $100 million in monetary relief, according to the proposed order, and have agreed not to oppose the reimposition of a federal court injunction against Clarke.

“FleetCor deceived its small business customers by promising fuel savings that never materialized, while unfairly charging them hidden and unauthorized fees,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in announcing the agreement. He said the order would help return money to affected customers.

The settlement does not yet mark the final administrative step. The FTC voted 1-0-1 to accept the consent agreement, with Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson recused. The agreement is to be published in the Federal Register and will be open to public comment for 30 days, after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final.

The result brings the case closer to its end after nearly seven years of litigation, but its significance for businesses is unusually concrete. What began as a dispute over the small charges appearing around a fuel card account ultimately became a test of whether a company can rely on disclosure practices that technically make information available while leaving customers without a clear understanding of what they have actually agreed to pay.

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