Use a fitness provider
Gyms and other fitness suppliers must meet certain legal requirements. These are set out in the National Fitness Industry Code of Practice. Make sure you check these responsibilities before you sign up. Be very careful about joining a gym or fitness centre that does doesn’t follow these rules.
‘Unconscionable’ conduct
Gyms (or their employees) cannot get you to sign a membership agreement by:
- using high-pressure tactics
- harassing you
- doing any other unconscionable conduct.
Harassment can include:
- using threatening or intimidating language
- acting in a threatening or intimidating way
- asking someone else to threaten or intimidate you
- making you feel like you must obey their requests or demands.
Unconscionable conduct can include:
- taking unfair advantage of a superior bargaining position
- forcing you to comply with unnecessary or unreasonable conditions
- taking unfair advantage of anything you don’t understand
- putting undue pressure on you.
False or misleading claims
Gyms (or their employees) must not make false and misleading claims, such as in their advertising. It’s illegal to intentionally make false or misleading claims.
Unrealistic promises
All promotional material must:
- be truthful, accurate and unambiguous
- not encourage unrealistic expectations (such as losing 20kg in a week)
- not make false, misleading or deceptive comparisons with services provided by competitors.
False endorsement claims
A gym must not falsely claim:
- to be members of industry groups (such as Fitness Queensland)
- that any organisation or person endorses their services.
Discounts or offers
Any discounts or offers must be genuine. For example, they cannot offer you a free gift to take part in a service and then raise the price to cover the cost of the gift.
Signage
Each centre must have a warning sign clearly visible when you enter the gym.
It will need to say that you must:
- tell them in writing about any health issues that might affect your participation
- figure out your own fitness, ability and health risks (if you’re a casual client).
Disclosure
A centre must tell you enough about their services to help you make an informed decision.
Facilities and rules
Before you sign up, the centre must:
- allow you to inspect the fitness centre
- give you a copy of
- the membership agreement
- the fitness centre rules and code of practice
- any other information to help you make an informed decision.
They must make the rules available to you at all times. If they change the rules, they must prominently display the new rules for 2 months.
Code of Practice
They must make the National Industry Fitness Code of Practice available for you to read. If you ask, they must tell you where you can get your own copy.
Download a copy of the Code of Practice.
Confidentiality
Centres must respect your private information. They cannot:
- use any client information that you give them
- disclose or sell your information to a third party
- let their employees use your information (except for legitimate work reasons).
This does not apply to information that:
- you said they could use or disclose (this must be in writing)
- they are legally allowed to use or disclose
- they must disclose by law (usually to police or other authorities).
This applies regardless of whether you’re a current or former member.