U.S. accuses FleetCor of charging hundreds of millions of dollars in concealed fees

U.S. fuel card organization FleetCor Technologies Inc (N:FLT) charged customers hundreds of millions of dollars in shrouded fees in the wake of promising to assist them with spending less on fuel, the Federal Trade Commission said on Friday.

In a court recording, the FTC asked a government judge in Georgia to stop FleetCor and Chief Executive Officer Ronald Clarke, from charging shrouded fees and to disgorge not well gotten gains.

In its grievance, the FTC said that FleetCor had advertised installment cards to companies with fleets of vehicles, promising that they would save cash, that there would be misrepresentation controls, and that there were no membership or transaction fees.

In any case, it said that after customers had signed up, FleetCor charged them "in any event hundreds of millions of dollars in surprising fees."

FleetCor said in a statement that it disagreed with the FTC, including the "objection is based upon essential misconceptions of the organization, its customers and its products."

The organization said its customer disclosures are "clear and imparted over and again, and that its customers are "sophisticated businesses who read their contracts, invoices and reports."

J.P. Morgan estimated in an analyst note that the disputed fees were likely less than 3% of income.

At the point when customers saw the charges and grumbled to FleetCor, the organization expelled the charges, and "in numerous instances FleetCor has started charging these customers for various fees to compensate for any shortfall," the FTC said in its protest.

The FTC also accused the organization of charging customers for interest, fund charges and programs to which they had not consented.

The FTC said that tens of thousands of customers had griped to government agencies as well as the Better Business Bureau.

The organization's share cost closed up 0.5 percent.