China News Service, December 28 (Reporter Miao Lu Chen Jing) "It is easy to apply for a card and it is difficult to return a card" has become a common problem in the fitness industry with prepayment as the main consumption mode. For this reason, Shanghai officially released the "Shanghai City Sports Fitness Industry Member Service Contract Model Text (2021 Edition)" (hereinafter referred to as "Member Service Contract"), in order to resolve consumption contradictions and consumption disputes in the fitness field from the source in the form of standardized contracts, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and improve Fitness industry service specifications.
Shanghai introduced the model of service contract for the sports and fitness industry. Photo by Miao Lu
The "Member Service Contract" has also become China's first model text of a fitness industry membership service contract formulated by industry departments, industry associations, joint market supervision, and the Consumer Insurance Commission.
The "Membership Service Contract" focuses on operators using standard clauses to restrict consumer rights, alleviating and evading their own responsibilities, including the first batch of 15 major fitness brands in Shanghai including Yizhao Wade Fitness, Welsh Fitness, and Zhongtian Fitness, with more than 400 stores Taking the lead in fulfilling and using the promise, the much-watched "seven-day cooling-off period for fitness membership card application" will also officially land in 2021.
The "seven-day cooling-off period refund" clause means that consumers can unilaterally terminate the contract and receive a full refund within 7 days after signing the contract without opening a card to use the membership service.
Shanghai introduced the model of service contract for the sports and fitness industry. Photo by Miao Lu
Xinghan Law Firm partner Wei Wei pointed out in an interview that the fitness industry contract is a comprehensive contract that integrates venue use, equipment use, article storage, and fitness guidance. This type of contract has no pre-set mandatory regulations in law. , The parties need to negotiate and negotiate. Therefore, in real life, this type of fitness contract has obvious special characteristics, that is, it is a regular and continuous contract and a long-term prepaid contract. The biggest problem of this type of contract is that it is difficult to terminate. Consumers are extremely disadvantaged.
The right of termination in the "Member Service Contract" is the biggest highlight, which can restore the fairness of the transaction between the two parties.
In addition, the "Member Service Contract" also clarifies the circumstances of card refunds (fees), provides detailed regulations on the liability for breach of contract and the termination of the contract, and clarifies the rights and responsibilities of operators and consumers.
Consumers have the right to unilaterally change the content of member services, terminate business, relocate and the compensation plan fails to reach agreement with the consumer or fail to perform the compensation plan, suspend business and fail to perform the compensation plan due to breach of contract by the operator. Cancel the contract and get a corresponding refund.
At the same time, the refund details, balance calculations and refund deadlines have also been clearly set to standardize and guide fitness service operators, and also make consumer membership card refunds rule-based.
In fact, the "Model Contract" received great attention during the period when it was soliciting opinions from the public.
The topic "Shanghai intends to set up a seven-day cooling-off period for fitness cards" once entered the top ten on Weibo's hot search list. Weibo video big V launched related votes, attracting 25,000 netizens to participate, and more than 92% of netizens agreed.
Public opinion generally believes that the fitness industry urgently needs to upgrade its services.
During the publicity period, a total of 138 people submitted feedback on the "Draft for Comment" through WeChat, email and other channels.
Tao Ailian, the second-level inspector of the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Administration and the deputy director and secretary-general of the Municipal Consumer Protection Committee, said that in response to the common problem of "excessive marketing in the fitness industry leads to impulsive consumption, it is difficult for consumers to withdraw due to contract terms". The establishment of the "seven-day cooling-off period" for membership cards is based on the basic principle of "autonomy of contract intentions" in the Civil Code, and fully considering the balance between the profit points of operators and the interests of consumers.
Xu Qi, deputy director of the Shanghai Sports Bureau, believes that the fitness and leisure industry is the leading industry in Shanghai's sports industry, and standardizing member service contracts will help promote fitness companies to develop more steadily on a standardized and orderly track, go longer and achieve The government, the market, and consumers have a win-win situation to better promote the high-quality development of the fitness and leisure industry.
Zhu Xingliang, Chairman of Zhongtian Fitness, pointed out that the introduction of the "Membership Service Contract" is very reasonable, which will change the business's previous marketing model that emphasizes marketing over service, and promotes the future development of the industry in the direction of focusing on service, integrity, and equality.
These unreasonable refund regulations seem to be difficult to implement in the early stage and need to cut some meat, but in the long run, it is very beneficial to the sports fitness industry and social development.
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