Federal Trade Commission v. FleetCor Technologies, Inc.

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 6, 2026
Docket23-12539
StatusPublished

This text of Federal Trade Commission v. FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (Federal Trade Commission v. FleetCor Technologies, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Federal Trade Commission v. FleetCor Technologies, Inc., (11th Cir. 2026).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 23-12539 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 01/06/2026 Page: 1 of 76

FOR PUBLICATION

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 23-12539 ____________________

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus

CORPAY, INC., RONALD CLARKE, Defendants-Appellants. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cv-05727-AT ____________________

Before ROSENBAUM, LAGOA, and WILSON, Circuit Judges. ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judge: Great Britain has an expression: “All fur coat and no knick- ers.” In the United States, we might say instead, “All hat and no USCA11 Case: 23-12539 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 01/06/2026 Page: 2 of 76

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cowboy.” Either way, we’d mean all talk and no substance, or some- thing looks much better than it really is. And that’s what the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) thought about Corpay, Inc.’s promises to its customers.1 For years, Corpay marketed itself as offering large and small businesses fuel credit cards that promised savings, control, and transparency. Yet when the FTC looked under the hat, it found no cowboy. Beneath Corpay’s promises of big savings, the FTC alleged, stood hidden charges, misleading practices, and broken commitments. So the FTC filed an enforcement action against Corpay and its CEO Ronald Clarke. After granting summary judgment for the FTC against both Corpay and Clarke, the court also entered per- manent injunctive relief against Corpay. Among other things, that injunction prohibits Corpay from putting fee disclosures behind a hyperlink, requires the company to make the disclosures “unavoid- able,” and mandates that Corpay secure a separate assent for each fee it charges. Corpay now appeals the district court’s entry of summary judgment and the permanent injunction against it and Clarke. It argues that genuine disputes of material fact preclude summary judgment. And even if liability stands, Corpay asserts, the district

1 FleetCor Technologies, Inc., rebranded and changed its name to Corpay,

Inc., in March 2024. The district-court decision and all filings in this case refer to Corpay as “FleetCor.” But because of the name change, we refer to it as “Corpay.” USCA11 Case: 23-12539 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 01/06/2026 Page: 3 of 76

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court exceeded its equitable authority by issuing an overly broad injunction. After reviewing the record and the parties’ briefs, and with the benefit of oral argument, we mostly disagree. The evidence against Corpay is overwhelming, and the company has not created a genuine dispute of material fact to preclude summary judgment against it. The evidence is similarly damning against Clarke on four of the five counts. But on one count, we agree with Clarke that the FTC has failed to establish that he had “some knowledge” of the company’s illegal conduct to support summary judgment. As for the injunction, we conclude that the district court didn’t abuse its discretion in issuing that relief. So we affirm the grant of summary judgment against Corpay on all five counts of the FTC’s complaint. And we affirm the grant of a permanent injunction against Corpay. We also af- firm the grant of summary judgment on four counts against Clarke. But we vacate the grant of summary judgment against Clarke on Count II and remand for further proceedings on that claim. Finally, we affirm the remainder of the district court’s judg- ment, including the permanent injunction. I. BACKGROUND A. Factual Background Corpay is a publicly traded company headquartered in At- lanta, Georgia. Ronald Clarke has served as Corpay’s CEO since at least 2014. USCA11 Case: 23-12539 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 01/06/2026 Page: 4 of 76

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Corpay’s core products are “fuel cards,” limited-use credit cards for fuel purchases, designed for businesses that use vehicles. Corpay advertises that these cards “provide a range of benefits, in- cluding spending reports, a replacement for cumbersome reim- bursement systems, methods for tracking fuel economy, and access to credit.” According to Corpay, it has over 200,000 business customers and 8,000 employees. Some of Corpay’s largest customers are highly sophisticated companies, including FedEx, UPS, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Lowe’s, and Sysco. But Corpay’s primary customer base, that is, 90–95% of its customers, includes small- and medium-sized businesses. So it’s unsurprising that around 75% of Corpay’s cus- tomers have 10 or fewer Corpay cards and 83% have credit limits of $20,000 or less. In fact, Corpay’s new-hire materials recognize that customers are often small business owners . . . who “work in the field/drive[] vehicles” and “do[n’t] think of them[selves] as hav- ing a ‘fleet’”; are “not always in front of a computer”; and are “short on time due to wearing multiple ‘hats.’” Corpay offers many types of fuel cards, but three kinds are relevant for this case: (1) Fuelman cards, (2) Mastercard cards, and (3) co-branded cards. Independent merchants that directly contract to be in Corpay’s “Fuelman Network” receive Fuelman cards. Cus- tomers may use Corpay’s Mastercard cards at fuel and maintenance locations that accept Mastercard. And customers may use the co- branded cards, which Corpay operates in partnership with major USCA11 Case: 23-12539 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 01/06/2026 Page: 5 of 76

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fuel providers like BP, Speedway, and Arco, on either the Fuelman or the Mastercard network. On December 20, 2019, the FTC brought an action in the Northern District of Georgia against Corpay and its CEO Clarke. The FTC alleged they committed five violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45. Counts I through III asserted three kinds of deceptive advertising. First, the FTC alleged Corpay created ads that falsely promised discounts “per gallon” of fuel when the cus- tomer used some of Corpay’s Fuelman Network and Mastercard cards. Second, the FTC asserted that a set of Corpay’s ads for its Mastercards falsely claimed that customers could limit purchases on those cards for “fuel only.” And third, the FTC complained that Corpay’s advertisements for both its Fuelman Network and Mas- tercard cards falsely represented that they had no transaction fees. Count V of the FTC’s complaint alleged Corpay engaged in “unfair practices” by charging unauthorized, unexpected add-on and late fees to its customers. For its part, Count IV asserted that Corpay made false and deceptive representations by indicating on billing statements that customers owed these allegedly unlawful fees. So Counts IV and V jointly centered on one set of conduct. The parties both moved for summary judgment in 2021. We discuss the evidence against Corpay and Clarke specifically at the time the district court ruled on the motions. 1. Count I: “Per Gallon” Advertisements The first set of advertisements that the FTC challenged claimed that four of Corpay’s cards offer savings for each gallon of USCA11 Case: 23-12539 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 01/06/2026 Page: 6 of 76

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fuel purchased with them. The content of these ads is not in dis- pute, but the wording varies slightly between ads. First up, we have the Fuelman Discount Advantage card. Ads for that card generally promised that customers would “[e]arn 5¢ cash back per gallon” or “[e]arn 5¢ cash back with the Discount Advantage FleetCard!” Here’s a representative advertisement for this card: USCA11 Case: 23-12539 Document: 70-1 Date Filed: 01/06/2026 Page: 7 of 76

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Second, Corpay offered the Fuelman Diesel Platinum card.

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Bluebook (online)
Federal Trade Commission v. FleetCor Technologies, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/federal-trade-commission-v-fleetcor-technologies-inc-ca11-2026.