Are You Still Being Charged Gym Membership Fees Despite COVID-19 Closures?

If you were charged gym membership fees despite your gym being closed due to COVID-19, you may be able to take legal action.

How Is COVID-19 Spread?

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease which is spread through droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks, or breathes.

When these droplets are inhaled from the air, they are thought to cause an infection in a healthy person. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is growing evidence which suggests that airborne droplets could remain suspended in the air where they are inhaled by other people.

Should droplets land on a surface, a healthy person could touch this surface and then touch their own mouth, nose, or eyes – again causing an infection. However, the CDC notes that the primary way that the virus is spread is through airborne droplets.

Have Gyms Been Affected by The Coronavirus?

At the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, many gyms closed their doors due to the sudden pandemic. With people running, working out, and generally breathing heavily, gyms could quickly become an environment of quick COVID-19 spread.

Although the choice to close gyms in the face of the pandemic was done in favor of public health, some gyms may still be charging membership fees despite being closed.

Are Gyms Charging Gym Memberships Despite Being Closed For COVID-19?

Although some gyms have remained closed for months, consumers may still find they are being charged each month for their gym membership. This practice has sparked widespread indignation from consumers who say they should not have been charged for services they weren’t able to use.

Consumers can try to cancel their gym membership to avoid fees, but they may run into serious roadblocks. Vox details the store of one New Yorker who was charged monthly gym membership dues but was unable to cancel her membership online or over the phone. Instead, she was allegedly told she had to go into the gym to cancel her membership.

“Hey [Crunch Gym], ironic that you’re making me go in-person to freeze my membership, when the reason behind freezing my membership is because I’M TERRIFIED TO GO INSIDE A GYM and catch Covid-19,” the woman wrote on twitter “Why do you not have remote customer service to handle this?”

Unfortunately, many consumers may have had similar experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if they manage to avoid gym membership fees, members may still have been charged for fees during months that their gyms were closed. In these cases, consumers may be able to take legal action against their gyms.

Have COVID-19 Gym Membership Fees Class Action Lawsuits Been Filed?

Several consumers have already taken matters into their own hands by filing lawsuits against their gyms.

New York Sports Club has faced more than one of these complaints. In March, plaintiff Mary Namorato filed a class action lawsuit against the gym – saying that she was charged $69.99 on March 1 despite the gym being closed.

The same gym also faces a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James. According to James’ complaint, New York Sports Club and Lucille Roberts gyms violated state laws by charging fees to New Yorkers despite their facilities being closed since March.

To make matters worse, Town Sports International – the gyms’ parent company – allegedly failed to give the refunds they promised, charged additional fees for membership cancellation, and even ignored cancellation requests from their members.

“Many of [Town Sports International’s] members cancelled their memberships because they were unemployed due to the pandemic, and could no longer afford the luxury of a gym membership,” James said.

“Under the circumstances, [Town Sports International’s] ‘Hotel California’-style approach to its members — ‘You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave’ — is not only unlawful, it is reprehensible.”

James seeks a restraining order from the court which would force the gyms to stop illegally charging gym membership fees to their customers. The attorney general also seeks restitution for affected members and penalties – including $5,000 for each unlawful act and $2,500 for each violation of the Health Club Law. This law carries a provision which gives gym members the ability to cancel their membership if they are not able to access the gym’s services.

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.

The New York Sports Club AG Lawsuit is Case No. 451969/2020 in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.