The FTC pursues gymnasium channels for having made it difficult to cancel the subscriptions

The Federal Trade Commission brought legal action against operators from several gymnasium channels, including fitness on Wednesday for allegations that they make the cancellation of memberships too difficult. And this is probably the welcome of the news for all those who have had the dissatisfaction to try to cancel with their gymnasium.

The companies chased by the FTC are fitness and fitness and sport clubs, which have gym channels like Esporta Fitness, City Sports Club and Club Studio. The largest chain, fitness, has more than 600 locations across the United States

The 22 -page complaint, which has been published online, details how the FTC believes that fitness and others have created a heavy process for consumers. To start, members must connect to their website and print a cancellation form. But users are encouraged to register to use the Fitness application and a QR code, which means that many people apparently do not know their connection information for the website. There is no way to cancel via the application, according to the FTC.

Customers who do not know how to connect with their identification information must jump even more hoops to obtain it. The user must provide the original email address used to obtain the membership account, the “key tag” given when he registered and the first five figures of the bank account or the credit card number indicated on the account, according to the complaint.

The cancellation form is not made public on the company’s website and can only be found after users connect. And the form must be printed, a very real obstacle for many households in 2025.

Even if you find how to connect with your identification information and print the form, customers must either send the form or provide the form to a physical location, where they will be faced with even more obstacles. The FTC indicates that customers must send cancellation forms via a registered or certified letter. And even if most fitness locations are open seven days a week, often for 19 hours a day, cancellations are only accepted between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., when most people are at work.

No one really wants to take the force to cancel their gym subscription. And that’s how people can get stuck with the gym subscriptions they no longer want.

The FTC press release announcing the trial also alleys that the fitness formed the staff to reject cancellation requests by phone or e-mail. And “consumers who try to cancel their memberships by stopping the costs of their bank or their credit card reveal that they are rebilled, often under new account numbers”. The FTC says that it violates the FTC law and the Restore online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (Rosca). Cancellation with nothing more than a click on the application seems to be a reasonable and friendly way to lead business.

“The FTC complaint describes a scenario that too many Americans have experienced – a gymnasium subscription that seems impossible to cancel,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC consumer protection office.

“Tens of thousands of fitness customers have reported difficulties – reconses was often limited to specific moments or forced to speak to specific managers who were often not present or available. The FTC will not hesitate to act on behalf of consumers when he believes that companies stifle the capacity of consumers to choose the recurring costs they want to maintain. ”

Fitness is far from being the only company that seems to prosper on heavy self-renewable policies. How many times have you signed up for a digital subscription of a kind and failed to cancel before being billed? This seems to be an increasingly popular business model these days. And the FTC took note.

After the publication of this article, Fitness International, the fitness operator, sent a long declaration awarded to Jill Hill, President of the club operations:

We are disappointed that the FTC has chosen to continue this complaint. The allegations are baseless, and the law on which the FTC is based – the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (Rosca), was promulgated almost 15 years ago – was designed to resolve only online retail transactions, requires no specific cancellation method and has never been applied to the health club industry before. We remain convinced that we prevail in court.

It is important to note that most of our subscriptions and all our memberships to personal training are purchased in person in our club. Even thus, 18 months before the new “click-to convenient” rule of the FTC took effect, we proactively launched an online cancellation option for all members, whatever the way they were originally signed up. In a few clicks, members can cancel online – a step that we have voluntarily implemented well before regulatory deadlines. Although a Federal Court of Appeal recently invalidated the “Click Concili” rule of the FTC, we have chosen to maintain our online cancellation program to provide members with another simple way to cancel. The members have also always had the possibility of canceling in person in any club, or by mail, and those who wish to do so can and cancel this way.

Our company works with diligence to comply with all the laws on the states of the health club concerning the cancellations of the members and to offer at least each method of cancellation specifically required by each state. Over the years, the company has taken many measures to improve its registration and cancellation processes.

International Fitness remains dedicated to the supply of accessible and high quality fitness options while maintaining compliance with all applicable laws. We will continue to defend our practices vigorously while ensuring that our members receive clear, simple and equitable membership experiences.