7-Eleven, Inc. and its parent company, Tokyo-based Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd., will pay $4.5 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit.
The FTC said the convenience-store chain violated a 2018 commission consent order by acquiring a fuel outlet in St. Petersburg, Florida, without providing the FTC prior notice.
The penalty is the largest civil fine the FTC has ever collected for a prior-notice violation, the commission said in a statement Monday. It is also the largest negotiated settlement for any order violation in the FTC Bureau of Competition’s history.
In addition to the $4.5 million in civil penalties, 7-Eleven was required to divest the St. Petersburg outlet to a strong buyer, the commission said.
“7-Eleven also agreed to commit to additional prior approval and prior notice requirements, which will help ensure that the commission is made aware of any attempts by 7-Eleven to further consolidate in the local fuel markets addressed in the FTC’s order,” the FTC said.
The FTC commissioners voted 2–0 to approve the settlement.
“Under the Trump-Vance FTC, merger remedies that protect competition are once again on the table,” Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. “But for merger remedies to work, firms must abide by the terms of their consent orders and we will hold parties accountable when they don’t live up to their commitments.”
Guarnera said that 7-Eleven failed to fulfill the terms of the FTC’s consent order and is now paying a record price.
“The FTC will not hesitate to protect the public by actively enforcing order violations and seeking penalties against future violators,” Guarnera said.
The settlement resolves a lawsuit the FTC filed in 2023. That legal action stemmed from a 2018 consent order tied to 7-Eleven’s $3.3 billion acquisition of 1,100 retail fuel outlets from Sunoco.
At the time, the FTC alleged the deal would harm competition and raise fuel prices in 76 local markets. To address those concerns, 7-Eleven agreed to divest certain fuel outlets and to provide prior notice to the FTC before making future acquisitions of competing fuel outlets in the local markets, the commission said.
“This prior notice allowed the FTC to investigate—and, if needed, file an enforcement action—if additional acquisitions by 7-Eleven harmed consumers in these local markets,” the FTC said in a statement.
The consent order specifically listed the St. Petersburg outlet as one that 7-Eleven could not acquire without providing the FTC with prior notice, the commission said.
According to the FTC’s complaint, 7-Eleven acquired the St. Petersburg fuel outlet in December of 2018, in violation of the consent order. On March 25, 2022—over three years after 7-Eleven acquired the St. Petersburg outlet—7-Eleven first informed the commission it had acquired the St. Petersburg outlet.
The FTC said it found that 7-Eleven’s internal controls for ensuring compliance with the consent order were “wholly inadequate” and that the company failed to implement any meaningful systems to ensure compliance with the commission order.
- 7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
7-Eleven—known for its Slurpee, Big Bite and Big Gulp brands—operates, franchises or licenses more than 13,000 stores in the United States and Canada. In addition to 7-Eleven, the company operates and franchises Speedway and Stripes c-stores and the Laredo Taco Company, and Raise the Roost restaurant brands.
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