Small businesses that held FleetCor fuel card accounts, including Fuelman cards, were charged hidden and unauthorized fees that a federal court found violated the FTC Act, and in September 2026 FleetCor, now Corpay, agreed to pay $100 million to fund refunds. The order is not final and there is nothing to file yet; the FTC will announce how the money is distributed.
What Happened?
FleetCor Technologies, now known as Corpay, Inc., and its chief executive, Ronald Clarke, agreed to pay $100 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission administrative action over the fees FleetCor charged business customers on its fuel cards. The FTC announced the proposed consent order on September 17, 2026, and said the money will be used for redress to the company’s business customers.This is not a settlement of open questions. In the FTC’s federal lawsuit, filed in 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia entered summary judgment for the FTC on all counts on August 9, 2022, finding that FleetCor charged customers hidden or otherwise unauthorized fees and misrepresented the fuel savings and fees associated with its cards. The court entered a permanent injunction on June 8, 2023. On January 6, 2026, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the judgment against the company on all five counts and kept the injunction against it in place.
The order is still a proposal. It was published in the Federal Register on September 22, 2026, and public comments are open through October 22, 2026, after which the Commission decides whether to make it final. Nothing can be claimed until then, and the FTC has not yet said how refunds will be paid.
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What the Court Found FleetCor Did
FleetCor sold fuel cards to businesses, mostly small companies in trucking, transportation and other fields that run vehicle fleets, under its own Fuelman brand and through co-branded cards. Business owners gave the cards to employees to buy fuel for company vehicles.The FTC’s complaint described a broad set of fees customers had not agreed to and often could not see. According to the FTC, FleetCor waited several billing cycles before starting many fees so they were harder to notice, and its invoices did not show that fees were being charged at all; customers had to dig through separate account reports, where many fees were buried or missing. The FTC also alleged that FleetCor posted customer payments late, which triggered late fees for customers who had paid on time, and that its promises of per-gallon fuel savings, fraud controls and no set-up, transaction or membership fees did not hold up. The complaint said the fees totaled hundreds of millions of dollars and affected tens of thousands of customers.
The court agreed on liability, finding FleetCor charged hidden or unauthorized fees and misrepresented its fuel savings and fees. Its order permanently bars FleetCor from billing customers for any charge without their express informed consent and clear, unavoidable disclosure of the charge, from hiding material information about charges behind a hyperlink, and from making deceptive claims about its fuel cards.
Why the Money Comes From a Separate FTC Case
The FTC sued FleetCor in federal court under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act. In April 2021, the Supreme Court held in AMG Capital Management v. FTC that Section 13(b) does not let the FTC win money for consumers. So on August 11, 2021, the FTC filed a separate administrative complaint over the same practices. The court case produced the liability ruling and the injunction; the administrative case is where the $100 million settlement comes from.In the consent agreement, FleetCor and Clarke do not admit that they violated the law; that is standard for an FTC settlement. The court rulings stand on their own. The Eleventh Circuit upheld the judgment against Clarke on all counts but one and vacated the injunction as to him, and as part of this settlement Clarke and the company agreed not to oppose putting a court injunction against him back in place. The Commission accepted the proposed order on a 1-0-1 vote, with Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson recused.
Who Is Likely to Get a Refund
The FTC says the $100 million will provide redress to FleetCor’s business customers harmed by the practices, meaning the companies that held the fuel card accounts and paid the fees. Drivers and employees who only used a company card at the pump were not the ones billed. The FTC has not published eligibility criteria, payment amounts or a timeline, and nothing in the proposed order sets them.The order does require FleetCor to give the FTC the customer information it needs to run the refund program, and to provide any redress-related information the agency asks for within 14 days. In many FTC cases that means the agency identifies eligible customers from company records and pays them directly, but the FTC has not said whether this case will work that way or will use a claims process.
What Happens Next
The comment period closes October 22, 2026. After reviewing comments, the Commission decides whether to make the order final, and it takes effect when the FTC publishes it as a final order on ftc.gov. FleetCor and Clarke then have eight days to pay the $100 million. The FTC administers the money; if direct redress turns out to be impracticable or money is left over, the agency may use it for other relief related to the practices, and anything unused goes to the U.S. Treasury.Once the order is final, each violation of it can carry a civil penalty of up to $53,088. OpenClassActions.com will update this page when the FTC announces how refunds will be paid. The FTC never requires anyone to pay money to receive a refund, so any message asking for a fee to release a FleetCor refund is a scam.
Questions
Is there a FleetCor or Fuelman refund claim form?
No. As of October 6, 2026 the FTC has not opened a claim process or announced how the $100 million will be distributed. The order is not final yet. The FTC will decide how refunds are paid, and in many of its cases it pays identified customers directly from company records. The FTC never charges a fee to receive a refund.
Can individual drivers or consumers get money from the FleetCor settlement?
The FTC says the money will be used for redress to FleetCor's business customers, the companies that held the fuel card accounts and paid the fees. Employees who simply used a company fuel card to refuel a work vehicle were not the ones billed, so the refunds are aimed at the account holders.
Did FleetCor admit it broke the law?
Not in the settlement. The consent agreement says signing it is not an admission that the law was violated. Separately, a federal district court entered summary judgment for the FTC in 2022, finding FleetCor violated the FTC Act, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed that ruling against the company on all five counts in January 2026.
Why is this an FTC administrative settlement instead of part of the court case?
In 2021 the Supreme Court held in AMG Capital Management v. FTC that the FTC cannot obtain monetary relief under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act, the provision it used to sue FleetCor in federal court. The FTC then filed a separate administrative complaint over the same practices in August 2021. The court case produced the injunction; the administrative case is where the $100 million comes from.
What happens to money the FTC cannot return?
Under the proposed order, the FTC uses the money for redress and its administration. If direct redress is impracticable or money is left over, the FTC may use it for other relief reasonably related to the practices, such as consumer information remedies, and any money not used goes to the U.S. Treasury.
Sources
• Federal Trade Commission — FleetCor agrees to pay $100 million (press release, September 17, 2026)• Federal Trade Commission — Proposed Decision and Order, In the Matter of FleetCor Technologies (Docket No. 9403)
• Federal Register — FleetCor Technologies; Analysis of Proposed Consent Order to Aid Public Comment (September 22, 2026)
• U.S. District Court, N.D. Georgia — Order for Permanent Injunction and Other Relief, FTC v. FleetCor Technologies, No. 1:19-cv-5727-AT (June 8, 2023)
• Federal Trade Commission — FTC alleges fuel card marketer FleetCor charged hundreds of millions in hidden fees (December 20, 2019)
• FTC v. Corpay, Inc., 164 F.4th 807 (11th Cir. 2026)
