In brief: There are few things more difficult in life than trying to cancel a gym membership. The FTC says that some health clubs make this task intentionally awkward to dissuade cancellations, which is why the agency is suing several gym chains, including the operators of LA Fitness. The FTC has gone after other services for the same reason in recent times, including Uber, Adobe, and Amazon.
The FTC names Fitness International and Fitness & Sports Clubs in its lawsuit, owners of gym chains such as Esporta Fitness, City Sports Club, Club Studio, and LA Fitness.
The companies and their subsidiaries are accused of illegally charging consumers hundreds of millions of dollars in unwanted recurring fees by creating a cumbersome cancellation process.
Cumbersome sounds like an understatement in this case. For LA Fitness, customers who want to cancel must log in to the website and print off a cancellation form, which obviously requires the use of a printer. But as the gym encourages people to use its app and a QR code, most people don't have or remember their login credentials. There's no way to cancel using the app, of course.
While most people would simply reset their login credentials at this point, even this process is unnecessarily difficult. It requires the original email used to set up the membership account, the "key tag number" assigned at signup, and the first five digits of the bank account or credit card number listed on the account.
Many customers have complained that when attempting to cancel their memberships, they can't access the LA Fitness website, so they just give up. Some even claim that when attempting to make an online account, they never received the email to do so after requesting it.
It's also pointed out that even those who did access the website and print out the forms are directed to bring it to a brick-and-mortar gym location, but they can only be handed in Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm – when most people are at work – despite being open 19 hours per day, seven days a week. The forms can only be submitted to one on-site employee, the Operations Manager, who may or may not be available during the stated hours.
The forms can be mailed, but it's recommended that this be done via certified mail. The FTC also claims LA Fitness trained staff to reject cancellation requests that come via phone or email, and "consumers who try to cancel their memberships by stopping charges to their bank or credit card find they are rebilled, often under new account numbers."
"The FTC's complaint describes a scenario that too many Americans have experienced – a gym membership that seems impossible to cancel," said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.
The FTC has long fought to make subscriptions as easy to cancel as they are to sign up for, hence the introduction of its click-to-cancel rule. While it took effect in early 2025, enforcement of its key provisions was deferred until July 14.
Just days before click-to-cancel enforcement was due to begin, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit blocked the rule due to procedural errors. However, existing federal and state laws, such as the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA), still require clear disclosures, express consent, and easy cancellation for online, negative-option subscriptions.
FTC sues LA Fitness operators over "impossible to cancel" memberships
