New York Sports Club Class Action Says Gym Still Charging Members Despite Coronavirus Closure

A class action lawsuit has been filed against the owners of New York Sports Club by a member who claims that the gym is still charging her fees even though locations are closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Plaintiff Mary Namorato says that in January 2019, she joined the New York Sports Club at their Grand Central Station location in New York City. She was told by the sales representative that her membership would cost $69.99 per month, would be charged to her credit card, and that she could cancel the membership at any time.

Namorato states that Town Sports International (TSI), the owner of the New York Sports Club, charged her credit card $69.99 on March 1 for her monthly membership and access to the gym.

However, despite collecting her membership fees she claims that starting March 16, New York Sports Club has not provided her with gym access and gym services.

Are you a member of New York Sports Club and have had your membership charged during the coronavirus outbreak? Get legal help here.

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, TSI announced that they would be closing all of their gyms as of March 16 in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, the plaintiff states. In addition, the gym announced that these closures were effective immediately and would be closed until further notice, says Namorato.

The New York Sports Club class action lawsuit states that the plaintiff emailed TSI asking for information regarding how they were going to handle membership fees now that the gyms were closed.  She alleges that she has not heard back from TSI regarding her question.

Namorato says that the club is currently closed, yet the company charged her credit card $69.99 in fees for March. She claims that under her current contract with the gym, her membership is in exchange for access to the gym and despite not providing access, the gym is still charging membership fees.

The coronavirus outbreak class action states that TSI has engaged in fraudulent consumer conduct as it has misrepresented to consumers that it would provide access to their gyms in exchange of membership dues.

Namorato notes that, as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, many gyms have contacted their members and have told them that their memberships will be suspended. The plaintiff says that New York Sports Club has not done so and that this conduct is the “height of corporate greed, lack of empathy and putting profits before people.”

In addition, the New York Sports Club class action claims that the club is currently not honoring cancellation requests during this time and has a history of not cancelling memberships when an individual would like to do so.

“TSI has a well documented pattern of engaging in deceptive, dishonest and fraudulent conduct that amounts to stealing from and ripping-off its customers who are desperately trying to cancel memberships,” the New York Sports Club class action lawsuit reads.

Namorato says that TSI enters into contracts with their customers which ensures that New York Sports Clubs will offer access to their gyms in exchange for a monthly fee.

The membership fees range from $30 per month to $120 per month, according to the plaintiff. The defendant regularly revokes memberships of customers who do not pay, the Namorato states.

When they sign up for memberships to New York Sports Club, the sales representative asks the customers to sign an electronic pad, which they then paste onto a contract which has extra terms which the customer has not agreed to, the coronavirus class action alleges.

An article in the New York Post says that Namorato has sent email messages to the New York Attorney General asking about TSI’s conduct after she was told that the company would not automatically freeze customer accounts. Allegedly, customers would have to mail in their requests to cancel their accounts but there would be fees involved with the process.

“As alleged herein, Defendants have been engaged, and continue to engage, in consumer-oriented conduct towards Plaintiff and the Class that was and continues to be false, misleading and deceptive in a material way,” says the New York Sports Club class action lawsuit.

The plaintiff questions of law include 1) whether the plaintiffs contracted with the defendants to provide gym services; 2) whether the defendant charged the plaintiff for services that were not provided; 3) whether the defendant engaged in deceptive and/or misleading conduct; and 4) whether the defendant’s unlawful conduct constitutes a breach of contract.

Prospective Class Members include: “all situated persons who were (i) charged fees for a period in which services were not provided, or (ii) were not permitted to cancel their memberships after TSI refused to provide the agreed-upon services.”

The plaintiff is represented by David E. Gottlieb and Taylor J. Crabill of Wigdor LLP.

The New York Sports Club Membership Class Action Lawsuit is Namorato v. Town Sports International, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02580, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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