LA Fitness Class Action: Gym Membership Sales Tactics Are Deceptive

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Fitness International LLC, which does business as LA Fitness, has been hit with a class action lawsuit accusing it of pressuring consumers into signing year-long gym memberships by misleading them into believing they were only obligated to pay for one month of membership.

Lori Rocca, a Florida resident, filed the LA Fitness class action lawsuit earlier this week in California federal court because Fitness International’s headquarters and principal place of business is located in Irvine, Calif.

According to the LA Fitness class action lawsuit, a sales representative used high-pressure sales tactics to persuade Rocca to purchase a membership at an LA Fitness location in South Tampa, Fla. Rocca claims the sales representative informed her that she could cancel the membership and be charged for only one month.

Rocca subsequently sent a letter via certified mail to cancel the LA Fitness membership, the LA Fitness class action lawsuit alleges.

Even though Rocca expressed her intent to cancel the membership, LA Fitness continued to charge her credit card each month. Rocca says she immediately contacted LA Fitness to dispute the funds and insist that her membership contract be canceled.

LA Fitness allegedly responded to Rocca that she had signed an agreement that allowed the company to continue deducting money from her account to pay for the membership. Rocca insists she never agreed to continue paying for an LA Fitness membership beyond the first month.

“At the time of the agreement, Defendants and its agents made various abiding representations to Plaintiff, including but not limited to promises that Plaintiff was only signing up for one month membership and was only obligated to pay for that one month,” the LA Fitness class action lawsuit says.

Rocca says she feels “ripped off and cheated” by the LA Fitness defendants after she learned that she had signed an agreement to pay monthly for a one-year membership.

“Such sales tactics rely on falsities and have a tendency to mislead and deceive a reasonable consumer,” Rocca argues in the LA Fitness class action lawsuit. She claims that the representations made by the LA Fitness sales representative “were part of a common scheme to mislead consumers and incentivize them to purchase Defendants’ memberships.”

Rocca says she would not have entered into the LA Fitness membership agreement if she had known that the sales representative’s statements about the contract were false. She filed the LA Fitness class action lawsuit on behalf of herself and a proposed Class of U.S. consumers who purchased Fitness International’s services during the applicable statute of limitations.

The LA Fitness class action lawsuit asserts violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law, California’s False Advertising Law, and Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Rocca seeks injunctive and declaratory relief; restitution or actual damages; trebled damages; pre- and post-judgment interest; punitive damages; attorneys’ fees and costs; and other relief the court deems just and proper.

Rocca is represented by Todd M. Friedman and Adrian R. Bacon of Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC.

The LA Fitness Gym Membership Class Action Lawsuit is Lori Rocca v. Fitness International LLC, et al., Case No. 8:18-cv-00058-CJC-DFM, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.