Fitness or personal services contracts – rules for businesses

These are contracts for ongoing physical fitness services or other personal services related to physical fitness, including:

• Activities offered to improve flexibility, strength or aerobic fitness provided at a facility or other place associated with the supply of fitness or other personal services
• Other personal services relating to physical fitness, including instruction, training or assistance provided to consumers, either one-on-one or in a group setting

Your contracts are also considered future performance contracts and must also follow requirements outlined in the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (unofficial).  

If your business provides physical fitness services, including activities to improve flexibility, strength or aerobic fitness provided at a facility or other place associated with the supply of those services, or physical fitness instruction, training or assistance to consumers, either one-on-one or in a group setting, there are laws in BC that you must follow for your pre-contract disclosures, consumer contracts and your customers’ cancellation rights. Failure to follow the rules can result in consumer refund obligations, financial penalties or enforcement actions and have reputational implications for your business.

If your business has this type of contract, BC’s laws: 

• Require that you disclose specific information upfront
• Require that your contracts include specific information
• Give your customers cancellation rights in certain circumstances, including if your contract doesn’t have all the required contents
• Outline a formula for refunds that you must follow   

Read the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (unofficial). 
Read the Consumer Contracts Regulation (unofficial).

Read about the process and amounts for administrative penalties. 

The law sets out a list of content that your pre-contract disclosures and your contract must have for it to be legally binding. Not having this content may give 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. 

Read more about consumer cancellation rights in the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (unofficial) sections 18.4 and 23(5). 

For guidance on what should be included in your pre-contract disclosure and your contracts, read about understanding the changes to BC’s consumer protection laws. 

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 more about this in the Consumer Contracts Regulation (unofficial), Section 7 

Beyond having specific information in your pre-contract disclosures and 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 (unofficial). 
Read the Consumer Contracts Regulation (unofficial).
Read about understanding the changes to BC’s consumer protection laws. 

By law, there are several circumstances where your customer can cancel their fitness or personal 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 up to a year from the date they entered into the contract 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 Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (unofficial) and the Consumer Contracts Regulation (unofficial) in full to understand all your customers’ cancellation rights. 

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

Read  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 money paid 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 per cent of the money paid to you to date.

Read the Consumer Contracts Regulation (unofficial) (refund calculations). 

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

This type of 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 the contract renewal process. 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  the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (unofficial) (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. 

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.