Your fitness contracts – rules for businesses

A continuing services contract is a type of contract that provides for ongoing (continuing) instruction or training for activities related to physical culture, bodybuilding, or exercise, or that gives a consumer the ongoing use of a health studio, gym, or similar type of facility to carry out those activities. It also includes punch cards or session-based sales for physical culture or exercise activities.

Your contracts are continuing services contracts if you are a:

• gym
• fitness centre
• yoga studio
• martial arts studio

Your contracts are continuing services contracts if you offer:

• ongoing physical culture and/or exercise activities
• dance lessons
• self-defence classes
• weight loss programs

This is not a full list, there are more services and businesses that are captured by the law. We recommend that you read the consumer contracts regulation in full and have a lawyer review your contracts.

Read Section 2 of the consumer contracts regulation (the legal definition of a continuing services contract).

The law has a list of content that your contract must have in for it to be legally binding. Not having this content gives your customer the automatic right to cancel their contract with you for up to one year from the date you gave them the contract. Protect your business by following the law.

Required contents

Here are a few of the things that your contract must include:

• the supplier’s name, address, and phone number
• the date the contract is entered into
• a detailed description of the goods or services to be supplied under the contract
• a detailed statement of the terms of payment
• the total cost, including the total cost of credit
• the period of time, in months, over which your customer can reasonably expect to get the services

This is not a full list. We recommend that you read the consumer contracts regulation and the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act in full and have a lawyer review your contracts.

Notice of cancellation

Your contract must also include a notice of a customer’s rights of cancelation that is prominently displayed in a way that’s clear and easy to understand. This notice must be on the first page of the contract. If the notice is not on the first page of the contract, the first page must contain a statement, clearly and prominently displayed, directing the customer to where the notice may be found in the contract.

Read Part 4 of the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (required contract content).

Beyond having specific information in your contract, including a notice of cancellation, by law, you must:

• give a copy of the contract to your customer within 15 days after the contract is entered into.
• not give, or offer to give, a discount or something else of value to a customer in exchange for them giving you a lead on new potential customers.

This is not a full list. You have more requirements to follow. We recommend that you read BC’s consumer protection laws in full.

It’s important to understand that there may be other laws, not administrated by us, that apply to your contracts. Do your research and have a lawyer review your contracts.

Read the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act.
Read the consumer contracts regulation.
Read about future performance contracts.

By law, there are several circumstances where your customer can cancel their fitness (continuing services) contract with you. They include:

• they can cancel within 10 days of getting a copy of the contract for any reason.
• they can cancel if there have been certain types of changes in the circumstances of the customer or in the services you have provided to them (called a “material change”).
• they can cancel if they don’t get a copy of the contract within 15 days.
• they can cancel their contract with you no later than one year after the date they got a copy of the contract if that contract does not include all the required information.

This is not a full list. We recommend that you read the consumer contracts regulation and the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act in full to understand all your customers’ cancellation rights.

We encourage people to cancel contracts in writing. We have several forms that can be used to cancel continuing services contracts. Please familiarize yourself with them so that you recognize them as notices of cancellation.

Read Section 23 and our information for consumers and continuing services contracts cancellation forms.

If your customer has requested to cancel their contract with you because of a material change, you must refund the portion of all cash payments that have been made under the contract using a specific formula that is outlined in the law.

If a customer is cancelling because of a change in their circumstances, by law, you can keep up to 30% of the money paid to you to date.

Read Section 3 of the consumer contracts regulation (refund calculations).

This section does not apply if your fitness contracts are month-to-month.

A continuing services contract can’t extend past 24 months. One month prior to the end of the contract, your customer may renew their contract. This must be done in writing.   

There are rules around this transition. It’s important for you, as the business owner or the person delivering the service, to understand your obligations and your customer’s cancellation rights in this circumstance.

Read Section 24 of the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (contract terms).

We are a provincial regulatory authority, responsible for overseeing BC’s consumer protection laws. The laws we are responsible for include the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act and the Consumer Contracts Regulation. These laws outline the rules for the types of contracts your business uses when entering into agreements with consumers (called continuing services contracts).

By law, we have the authority to inspect your business practices and your contracts. Our approach is to help you voluntarily comply with the law – our goal is not to punish, but rather to correct marketplace behaviour. Should we not get voluntary compliance, we have several enforcement tools at our disposal, including the ability to order to you comply with the law and to issue monetary administrative penalties.

Find out more about us.
Read about our enforcement approach and tools.

Our goal with our inspection is to identify and help you correct the use of non-compliant continuing services contracts. While we are interested in working collaboratively with you to identify problems with your continuing services contracts, as a business owner, you are responsible to make sure that your contracts meet the law.

During an inspection, you will be required to produce copies of your continuing services contracts and other business records. If we find issues with your contracts, we will identify the problem areas and require you to correct them. There are significant penalties for not complying with an inspection, including monetary penalties as high as $50,000.

Learn more about our inspection process.