{"id":52423,"date":"2025-07-09T21:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T21:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52423\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T21:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T21:49:12","slug":"us-court-voids-click-to-cancel-rule-in-major-victory-for-fitness-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52423\/","title":{"rendered":"US Court Voids Click-to-Cancel Rule in ‘Major Victory’ for Fitness Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The controversial rule, which would\u2019ve forced gyms to make it easier for people to cancel their memberships, will no longer go into effect<\/strong><\/p>\n

A United States appeals court has struck down the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)\u2019s \u201cclick-to-cancel\u201d rule, a decision America\u2019s top fitness industry organization hailed as \u201ca major victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversial rule, officially known as the \u201cnegative option rule,\u201d was set to go into effect on July 14th<\/a>. It would have required that many businesses, including gyms, make it as easy for consumers to cancel subscriptions and memberships as it was to sign up for them in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While click-to-cancel has been praised by consumer-rights groups, fitness industry stakeholders expressed concerns that the rule would have exposed gyms, health clubs and fitness studios to unnecessary and costly operational burdens.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion<\/a> vacating the rule, saying it suffered from \u201cprocedural deficiencies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Health & Fitness Association (HFA)<\/a> called the decision \u201c a major victory for the fitness industry and a direct result of HFA\u2019s sustained advocacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHFA has been deeply involved in this issue for more than two years, starting with formal comments on the original proposal and continuing through every phase of the process,\u201d the organization wrote Tuesday in a note to members. We filed an amicus brief in the case to highlight the rule\u2019s burdens on health and fitness facility operations, while also leading a Capitol Hill strategy to prepare a Congressional Review Act resolution in partnership with the US Chamber and industry allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

See Also<\/p>\n

\"Personal<\/a><\/p>\n

While the Eighth Circuit Court\u2019s decision will come as a sigh of relief to fitness businesses across the country, some states are taking matters into their own hands in an effort to make gym memberships easier to cancel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a $600,000 settlement with Equinox Group<\/a>, which operates Equinox, Equinox+ and SoulCycle, over alleged unfair membership cancellation practices. According to the attorney general\u2019s office, the luxury fitness and lifestyle company didn\u2019t offer accessible online cancellation options, among other violations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers should be able to cancel a membership they no longer use or want without breaking a sweat,\u201d Attorney General James said in a statement following the settlement.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The controversial rule, which would\u2019ve forced gyms to make it easier for people to cancel their memberships, will…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":52424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1198,27986,31241,210,39188,67,132,68,39189],"class_list":{"0":"post-52423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-fitness-legislation","10":"tag-gyms","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-fitness-association","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-zzz-a"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114825485956177333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52423","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=52423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}