LA Fitness Trapped Customers In Gym Contracts, FTC Lawsuit Claims

A federal lawsuit claims that LA Fitness consumers faced a complex web of obstacles when they tried to cancel their gym memberships.

A sign outside the Markham, Ontario, Canada, site of LA Fitness.

The “opaque and complicated methods” that LA Fitness allegedly used made it nearly difficult for subscribers to stop reoccurring charges. On Wednesday, August 20, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it was suing the national chain of gyms.

Fitness International and Fitness & Sports Clubs, located in California, are the objects of the case. The businesses run Club Studio, City Sports Club, Esporta Fitness, and LA Fitness.

Together, the businesses manage over 600 fitness centers and more than 3.7 million members across the country.

Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s consumer protection office, stated that “the FTC’s complaint describes a scenario that too many Americans have experienced – a gym membership that seems impossible to cancel.” Tens of thousands of LA Fitness patrons complained that cancellations were frequently limited to certain hours or necessitated interacting with supervisors who were frequently unavailable. When it feels that businesses are restricting customers’ ability to select which recurring charges they wish to maintain, the FTC will not think twice about taking action on their behalf.

According to the lawsuit, customers had to print a cancellation form after logging into the LA Fitness website. This procedure frequently required partial payment details, a membership key tag number, and lost credentials.

Customers could only cancel in person with a single designated staff, even after following those procedures. Even while gyms were open for business up to 19 hours a day, those employees were only available during certain hours.

Cancellations of mail presented additional difficulties. Consumers were not made fully aware that they could send a written notification instead, and they were instructed to send forms by certified or registered mail, which came with additional fees.

Additionally, according to the complaint, LA Fitness neglected to mention that extra services, such as training aids or towel service, might be canceled separately without damaging a gym membership. Instead, employees received training on how to turn down phone or email inquiries and escalated concerns.

The agency claims that some consumers who ceased making bank or credit card payments were invoiced again using other account numbers. Both the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act would be broken by that.

The FTC is requesting an order to halt the activities and ensure that customers receive their money back.