NEW YORK, CA \u2014 The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is suing the operators of LA Fitness, over allegations that they make it \u201cexceedingly difficult\u201d for consumers to cancel gym memberships and other related services offered in their clubs nationwide.<\/p>\n
In a Wednesday complaint, the FTC accused Fitness International and its subsidiary Fitness & Sports Clubs of illegally charging consumers \u201chundreds of millions of dollars in unwanted recurring fees\u201d as a result of cumbersome cancellation processes. The agency said that tens of thousands of customers have reported difficulties with these policies to date.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FTC\u2019s complaint describes a scenario that too many Americans have experienced \u2014 a gym membership that seems impossible to cancel,\u201d Christopher Mufarrige, director of the agency\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Beyond LA Fitness, California-based Fitness International operates brands like Esporta Fitness, City Sports Club, and Club Studio \u2014 spanning across more than 600 locations with over 3.7 million members nationwide. And the FTC pointed to two \u201cunfair and unlawful\u201d cancellation processes that it says these gyms have used for years: in-person cancellation or cancellation by mail.<\/p>\n
Both of these options require consumers to print out a form on the gym\u2019s website, which includes logging in with credentials that the agency says some customers don\u2019t have or remember. And if a customer opts for in-person cancellation, there\u2019s limited hours and often difficulty finding a manager to process the forms, the complaint notes \u2014 while mailing the form comes with additional costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach of these cancellation methods is opaque, complicated, and demanding \u2014 far from simple,\u201d the FTC writes in its complaint. It also alleges that the company doesn\u2019t adequately disclose cancellation offerings when consumers sign up for memberships, and that some will be signed up for additional services with recurring charges without realizing there may be different cancellation requirements.<\/p>\n
According to the FTC, Fitness International now offers website cancellations for subscriptions \u201cwith stand-alone agreements\u201d \u2014 but the agency said the process \u201cstill imposes unnecessary burdens\u201d on customers and claims that that option is buried online. It\u2019s also still not possible to cancel memberships on the company\u2019s mobile apps, the FTC added.<\/p>\n
Jill Hill, president of club operations at Fitness International, expressed disappointment in the FTC\u2019s decision to pursue litigation \u2014 and said that the allegations were \u201cwithout merit\u201d and that the company was confident that it would prevail in court.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Hill noted that the statute that the FTC relied \u201cwas designed to address only online retail transactions, does not require any specific method of cancellation, and has never before been applied to the health club industry.\u201d She added that Fitness International \u201cproactively launched\u201d its online cancellation process 18 months before the FTC\u2019s \u201cclick to cancel rule\u201d was set to take effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith just a few clicks, members may cancel online \u2014 a step we voluntarily implemented well ahead of regulatory deadlines,\u201d Hill said, adding that the company chose to keep this offering in effect \u201cto provide members with yet another simple way to cancel.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time that federal regulators have accused gym operators \u2014 and other companies with subscription services \u2014 of making their cancellation processes too difficult for consumers.<\/p>\n
Under the Biden administration, the FTC adopted a \u201cclick to cancel\u201d rule, which would have made it easier for consumers to end unwanted subscriptions. But last month, days before that rule was poised to go into effect, a federal appeals court blocked the proposed changes.<\/p>\n
In its litigation against Fitness International, the FTC says it\u2019s seeking a court order prohibiting the allegedly unfair conduct and money back for consumers who were harmed by difficult cancellation processes.<\/p>\n
By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, CA \u2014 The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is suing the operators of LA Fitness, over allegations…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":168249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-168248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}