L.A. Fitness has been hit with a national class action lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court, accusing the fitness chain giant of allegedly misleading members into thinking they can quickly and easily cancel memberships, when the process is actually more complicated and not fully and prominently explained in the membership agreement.
"Defendant deceived new members by promoting 'no hassle' cancellations in order to get them to sign up for gym memberships but failed to disclose the true nature of its cancellation policies," says the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. "As a result, consumers were continuously charged membership fees after making good faith efforts to cancel their policies."
The company told prospective members that "the only requirement to cancel the membership was to verbally notify the gym, and they would be able to
get out of the LA Fitness membership contract at any time," the suit says.
However, the fine print of the contract requires members to send a cancellation letter to the company headquarters in order to cancel, the lawsuit states.
"All the Plaintiffs were unaware of this written notice requirement to end their membership despite discussions and representations
from LA Fitness gym employees at the time of entering into the membership agreement, and even after notifying LA Fitness gym employees when they were actively trying to cancel memberships," the suit states.
It seeks refunds of membership fees charged after the members tried to cancel, as well as other damages and legal fees.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Jill J. Parker, of Parker & Minne LLP, of Los Angeles, and Danielle Perry, of Mason LLP, of Washington, D.C.
Brown et al. v Fitness International LLC, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 8:23-cv-02109