The action was about reclaiming wrongly charged additional fees, the AK reported on Thursday.
AK: Collection Campaign Against Gyms Recovered One Million Euros AK: Collection Campaign Against Gyms Recovered One Million Euros AK: Collection Campaign Against Gyms Recovered One Million Euros
6-02-2025, 10:51
The Vienna Chamber of Labour (AK Wien) has concluded its collective action against several fitness studio operators, reportedly recovering around one million euros for over 20,000 customers - an average of about 50 euros per person.
Vienna. Most of the fitness studios have since repaid the money, but some franchisees of the Cleverfit brand in Styria are still in default, explained AK consumer protection advocate Martin Goger in response to an APA inquiry. If no agreement is reached here, Goger does not rule out further legal steps.
Collective Action Followed Supreme Court Rulings
According to the AK, the collective action was initiated in 2023. It followed several association lawsuits against 30 fitness studio operators - including those of the chains Cleverfit, McFit, FITINN, and Fitfabrik. In the case of Cleverfit, the Supreme Court (OGH) declared several additional fees of the fitness center chain to be unlawful at the end of 2022. The OGH also ruled in favor of the AK in other cases.
The disputed additional fees included "annually or semi-annually collected service charges, one-time costs incurred at contract conclusion such as activation fees and a chip fee for access." Such fees, which are charged in addition to the regular membership fee, are only permitted if "particularly valuable services are offered that are not typically included in a fitness contract," the AK explained in its release.
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article .
