SoulCycle Class Action Alleges Violations of Consumer Protection Laws

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SoulCycle has been ignoring New York law at its members’ expense, according to the plaintiff in a consumer rights class action lawsuit.

Plaintiff Lori Kilgannon says that the contracts between defendant SoulCycle Inc. and its customers violate several provisions of New York consumer protection law, including a statute that specifically governs the relationships between health clubs and their members.

SoulCycle operates several indoor cycling studios in New York, where it provides cycling classes and fitness training. Sales of SoulCycle services happen almost exclusively online through the company’s website, Kilgannon says.

Kilgannon alleges this online sales platform fails to satisfy the requirements of New York’s Health Club Services Law, which places specific requirements on the contracts that health clubs enter into with their customers.

The HCSL requires health clubs to give their customers a copy of their written contract at the time the contract is signed. SoulCycle fails to do that, according to Kilgannon.

Customers who purchase classes online are required to agree to certain “Terms and Conditions,” but those terms and conditions only govern the customer’s use of the website or SoulCycle’s mobile app – not the provision of services the customer is purchasing, Kilgannon says.

The HCSL also requires contracts to contain particular language informing the customer the circumstances under which they may cancel the contract.

The law allows for cancellation if, for example, the customer moves more than 25 miles away from the club’s nearest location, or if the customer becomes unable to use the membership for six months or more due to a disability.

Kilgannon says the SoulCycle contract not only fails to provide the required language about cancellation, but it also affirmatively and illegally says that the customer has no right to cancel the contract.

Upon purchasing SoulCycle classes, she says, customers receive a confirmation email, or “Rider Receipt,” that includes terms such as “Exchanges/store credit only,” “No refunds” and/or “Honored within 30 days of purchase.” The confirmation email contains no other terms relevant to the contract, Kilgannon says.

“By willfully ignoring and violating New York’s HCSL, SOULCYCLE receives a windfall of ill-gotten and illegal profits and benefits,” Kilgannon says. The company keeps customers in the dark by failing to give them copies of their own contracts, she claims, and as a result SoulCycle ends up pocketing customers’ contract payments that should have been refunded.

She also accuses SoulCycle of unjustly enriching itself and unfairly competing with other health clubs by avoiding the costs associated with contract administration and management.

Other plaintiffs have successfully challenged SoulCycle’s membership terms. One such challenge resulted in a SoulCycle class action settlement that is now accepting claims from now until Sept. 11, 2017 from SoulCycle customers whose memberships expired before they could be used.

Eligible claimants can get their lost SoulCycle classes reinstated, or they can request a cash payment of $25 per class for up to two classes.

In Kilgannon’s SoulCycle class action lawsuit, she seeks to represent a plaintiff Class covering all persons in New York State who from six years before the filing of this action through Feb. 10, 2017 entered into a contract with SoulCycle that was the same or substantially similar to her own.

She seeks compensatory and treble damages, civil fines of up to $2,500 for each violation of the HCSL, and equitable relief including rescission of SoulCycle’s contracts with her and the proposed Class Members.

Kilgannon is represented by attorneys Evan S. Schwartz of Schwartz Law PC and by Stephen M. Hauptman of Newmeyer & Dillion LLP.

The SoulCycle Illegal Contract Class Action Lawsuit is Kilgannon v. SoulCyle Inc., Case No. 1:17-cv-06278, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.