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Why are gym memberships so hard to cancel?

By Stelvo Team · · 6 min read

Short answer: because a member who can't be bothered to cancel is the most profitable member there is, and until recently nothing in US federal law stopped a gym from making you show up in person or post a letter to leave. The FTC's "click-to-cancel" rule — cancelling must be as easy as signing up — was finalised in October 2024 and vacated by a federal appeals court on 8 July 2025, days before it took effect, on procedural grounds. California now requires cancellation in the same medium you signed up in (online sign-up, online cancel) for contracts from 1 July 2025, and the FTC reopened the rulemaking in March 2026. Everywhere else, the leverage is still the gym's.

Why gyms make cancelling hard

Because the contract is priced for people who don't come. In the classic economics study of health-club contracts, members who chose a monthly fee of more than $70 attended on average 4.3 times a month — more than $17 per visit when a 10-visit pass cost $10 a visit — and people on monthly contracts were 17% more likely to stay enrolled beyond a year than those who paid annually (DellaVigna & Malmendier, American Economic Review, 2006). Every month between the last visit and the cancellation is pure margin. The largest attrition study found 63% of new members stop training within three months (Sperandei et al., Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2016); the gap between stopping and cancelling is the business.

The industry itself frames it differently. The Health & Fitness Association reports 2025's churn as a decade low with rising membership tenure and only 4.6% of members never using their membership (HFA, 2026) — and it filed an amicus brief on the side of the businesses that challenged the federal cancellation rule.

What did the FTC's click-to-cancel rule require?

That leaving be as easy as joining. On 16 October 2024 the Federal Trade Commission finalised its Negative Option Rule, requiring sellers "to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up", to get consent before charging, to disclose material terms before taking billing details, and to provide "a simple mechanism to cancel the negative option feature and immediately halt charges". The FTC said it was receiving nearly 70 consumer complaints a day about subscription practices in 2024, up from 42 a day in 2021; the vote was 3–2 (FTC press release, October 2024).

Why isn't the rule in force?

A court threw it out before it started. In Custom Communications, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, decided 8 July 2025, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted the industry petitions and vacated the rule, holding that the FTC "failed to follow procedural requirements" — specifically, it skipped the preliminary regulatory analysis required once the rule's economic impact was estimated above $100 million a year. The court did not decide whether the rule itself was lawful. Among the amici supporting the challengers were the Health & Fitness Association, the International Franchise Association and the National Association of Spa Franchises (Eighth Circuit opinion, No. 24-3137).

The FTC has not given up. On 11 March 2026 it opened a new advance notice of proposed rulemaking, noting that its enforcement record "suggests negative option subscriptions continue to be plagued by difficult cancellation processes, unlawful retention tactics, and a suite of other impediments", and asking whether to adopt provisions of the vacated 2024 rule (FTC, March 2026). Rulemaking takes years; nothing new binds gyms yet.

Rule Status (September 2026) What it means for a gym member
FTC Negative Option Rule, October 2024 Vacated 8 July 2025 (Eighth Circuit) No federal "as easy to cancel as to join" requirement
FTC advance notice, March 2026 Comment stage A future rule may restore parts of the 2024 rule
California AB 2863 In force for contracts from 1 July 2025 Cancel in the same medium you signed up in
Existing FTC and state consumer-protection law In force Deceptive or hidden terms remain actionable

Which states make gyms let you cancel online?

California is the clearest. Its automatic-renewal law, amended by AB 2863 (approved 24 September 2024), requires that the ability to cancel "shall be available to the consumer in the same medium that the consumer used in the transaction that resulted in the activation of the automatic renewal or continuous service, or the same medium in which the consumer is accustomed to interacting with the business, including, but not limited to, in person, by telephone, by mail, or by email", for contracts entered into, amended or extended on or after 1 July 2025 (California Legislature, AB 2863). Signed up on a website in California, you can cancel on the website.

Many other states have automatic-renewal or health-club statutes with notice, refund and relocation provisions, but no uniform online-cancellation right; check your state's attorney-general consumer page for the current rule, since several legislatures have moved since the federal rule fell.

How do you actually cancel a gym membership?

  1. Read the contract for the cancellation clause — medium (in person, certified mail, online), notice period (often 30 days) and any early-termination fee. It governs unless state law overrides it.
  2. Use the medium the contract names, and keep proof: a dated letter with tracking, a screenshot of an online confirmation, the name of the staff member.
  3. Watch the next two billing cycles. Under the contract you may owe one more month; you should not owe three.
  4. If the gym keeps charging, dispute the charge with your card issuer with your proof, and file a complaint with your state attorney general and at reportfraud.ftc.gov — the FTC's 2026 rulemaking is explicitly built on those complaints.
  5. In California, insist on cancelling in the same medium you joined in; the statute is on your side for any contract from July 2025.

Are gym contracts worth it in the first place?

Only if you go. The same study that documented the cancellation lag found members forgo about $600 in savings over a membership by choosing the flat monthly contract over pay-per-visit — the contract was chosen by an optimistic self, the visits were made by the real one (DellaVigna & Malmendier, 2006). Average US dues were $65 a month in 2023 and almost 67% of members paid less than $50 (HFA, 2024); the biggest chain's entry tier starts at $15 a month plus a $49 annual fee (Planet Fitness). A month-to-month tier costs more per month and far less per unused month.

FAQ

Can a gym refuse to let me cancel online?

Outside California, generally yes if the contract specifies another medium; the vacated FTC rule would have changed that nationally. In California, for contracts from 1 July 2025, no.

Did the click-to-cancel rule get overturned?

Yes — vacated by the Eighth Circuit on 8 July 2025 because the FTC skipped a required preliminary regulatory analysis, not because the court ruled on what the rule required.

Why do gyms want you to cancel in person?

Friction. Every barrier delays the cancellation by a billing cycle, and members already attend far less than they pay for.

Sources

This page describes the law as of September 2026 and is not legal advice.

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