Dispute on Personal Trainers in Fitness Club Resignation

 

The resignation of personal trainers in the fitness club leads to disputes, but the annual card fee and course fee cannot be refunded?

After applying for the annual card, paying the dues and class hours, the personal trainer suddenly left, and the service courses he should have been delayed repeatedly. The fitness club actually responded "If you don't continue to pay, you will interrupt the course"? After repeated negotiations to refund the fee, the party concerned brought the fitness club to the court, demanding that the contract be terminated and the corresponding fee refunded. The Haidian Court heard the case a few days ago.

 

1. Private education courses were repeatedly interrupted, and negotiations failed to sue to court

Ms. Zhang signed a fitness service contract with a fitness club. After that, Ms. Zhang signed a personal trainer agreement, and the designated personal trainer provided planned courses.

 

 

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At the end of September 2018, Ms. Zhang’s personal trainer suddenly left, and the fitness club did not explain to Ms. Zhang. In November 2018, the front desk of the fitness club replied that the personal trainer could not be contacted, and delayed the time on this ground.

 

After many questions, Ms. Zhang found Lu, the legal representative of the fitness club, and negotiated a refund with her. Lu immediately agreed to refund the membership fee and personal education fee.

 

 Ms. Zhang and Lu Mou signed a supplementary agreement, agreeing that Lu Mou is willing to compensate for 5 private lessons. 

If you regret or let someone else take the lesson, you should refund immediately.

If there are uncompleted courses, the fitness club should Refund the annual membership fee and the remaining private lessons.

 

However, Ms. Zhang's courses were still interrupted for various reasons such as requesting to continue to pay fees, and other coaches were also taking the place during the course.

 

 2. The fitness club constitutes a breach of contract, member refunds to support

The court held that this case should be a service contract dispute. First, the fitness service contract signed between Ms. Zhang and the fitness club, the personal trainer agreement, and the supplementary agreement between Lu and Ms. Zhang are all true expressions of intent between the parties, and the content is legal and effective, and does not violate the law.

The mandatory provisions of laws and regulations should be legal and effective.

 

According to the provisions of Article 8 of the Contract Law, a legally established contract is binding on all parties to the contract. The parties shall perform as agreed.

 

Second, the two parties had a dispute regarding the fact that Ms. Zhang failed to attend the course in accordance with the contract. The fitness club's claim was due to Ms. Zhang's personal reasons, but she failed to provide evidence and the court rejected it. In the end, the court ruled that the fitness club would refund Ms. Zhang's annual card fee and corresponding class hours.

 

 Contract Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 8. Contracts established in accordance with the law are legally binding on the parties. The parties shall perform their obligations in accordance with the agreement and shall not modify or terminate the contract without authorization. Contracts established in accordance with the law are protected by law.

 

Article 94 In any of the following circumstances, the parties may terminate the contract:

 

(1) The purpose of the contract cannot be achieved due to force majeure.

 

(2) Before the expiration of the performance period, one of the parties clearly stated or indicated by its own behavior that it would not perform the main debt.

 

(3) One of the parties delays the performance of the main debt, and fails to perform it within a reasonable time limit after being urged.

 

(4) One of the parties delays in the performance of debts or has other breaches of the contract, which makes it impossible to achieve the contract purpose.

 

(5) Other circumstances stipulated by law.

 

3. Personal service contract: focus on consumer experience

In addition, in practice, fitness clubs often defend themselves on the form of "no refunds once the private training courses are sold." 

According to judicial practice, the situation of "personal trainer leaving suddenly" can be determined as a statutory cancellation of "the purpose of the contract cannot be achieved".

The fitness service contract has a certain personal nature, and the purpose of the contract is to provide specific personal services, and the quality of the personal training course is closely related to the professional level of the personal training and its own quality.

 

If you are unwilling to accept the replacement of other coaches, because the service contract is not suitable for compulsory performance, the parties can terminate the contract based on this request.

 

Article 26 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests: 

Where operators use standard terms in their business activities, they shall draw consumers’ attention to the quantity and quality of goods or services, prices or fees, and performance periods and methods in a prominent way.

 Safety precautions and risk warnings, after-sales service, civil liability, etc., which are of major interest to consumers, shall be explained in accordance with the requirements of consumers. 

Operators shall not use standard clauses, notices, declarations, store notices, etc., to exclude or restrict consumer rights, reduce or exempt operators from responsibilities, and aggravate consumer responsibilities that are unfair and unreasonable to consumers, and must not use formats Terms and use technical means to force transactions. 

Format clauses, notices, declarations, shop notices, etc. that contain the contents listed in the preceding paragraph shall be invalid.