Federal Trade Commission sues Fleetcor for its dishonest practices
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a complaint against the company Fleetcor and its CEO, Ronald Clarke, on the accusation that the company misled its customers by charging them millions of dollars in ‘mystery fees associated with fuel cards’.
Atlanta-based Fleetcor is a provider of fuel payment cards that has been actively acquiring expensive management platforms in recent years.
In the press note, FTC argued that the company ran a campaign under “Fuelman” brand name and through co-branded cards with businesses around the country which falsely told its business customers that they would ‘save money, be protected from unauthorized charges, and have no set-up, transaction, or membership fees’ which according to the Fleetcor own record contradicts.
This case comes from an earlier complaint which the FTC filed against the Fleetcor company back in December 2019 in which they alleged that they charged hundreds of ‘millions of dollars in hidden and undisclosed fees to their customers after making false promises they could save customers on their fuel costs’ but this case, the Supreme Court determined that the FTC cannot seek redress for consumers under section 13(b) of the FTC Act. In order to ensure it recovers money for consumers, FTC filed a new administrative complaint which alleges that Fleetcor and Clarke violated section 5 of the FTC Act.
“Fleetcor fleeced its customers out of hundreds of millions of dollars through its dishonest practices,” said Samuel Levine, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC will do everything it can to get money back to Fleetcor’s business customers and unsuspecting fuel card users by refiling this complaint administratively.