in Newswire Published on March 16, 2023

Class Action Claims Massage Envy Blocks Members from Canceling, Continues Charging Them

Stockman v. Massage Envy Franchising, LLC

Filed: March 10, 2023 ◆§ 1:23-cv-01510

A class action alleges Massage Envy has purposefully made it difficult for consumers to cancel their memberships and continues to charge them monthly payments after their membership has been terminated.

Defendant(s)

Massage Envy Franchising, LLC

Law(s)

Electronic Funds Transfer Act Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act

State(s)

Illinois

A proposed class action alleges Massage Envy has purposefully made it difficult for consumers to cancel their memberships and continues to charge them monthly payments after their membership has been terminated.

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The 13-page lawsuit out of Illinois claims Massage Envy has violated state and federal law by using “confusing membership policies” and “aggressive sales tactics” to extract additional payments from consumers after they cancel their accounts.

The plaintiff, an Illinois consumer, says she decided to cancel her Massage Envy membership after a lack of availability at nearby locations prevented her from scheduling a massage appointment for several months.

“However, upon logging into her online account, she was unable to find any mechanism for cancelling, despite all other aspects of account management being available through her online profile,” the filing states, adding that the plaintiff was eventually able to terminate her membership through Massage Envy’s website on December 28, 2021.

Days later, on January 4, the plaintiff received a voicemail from the company stating that it wanted to “discuss” her cancellation request, the case relays. Although Massage Envy, in leaving the voicemail, acknowledged that the woman had terminated her membership and revoked her consent to be charged monthly payments, the company withdrew $75 from her account on February 2, 2022, the suit contends.

According to the complaint, Massage Envy has run afoul of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act by extracting a payment after the plaintiff withdrew her consent to preauthorized electronic fund transfers. Moreover, the company was prohibited by the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act from intentionally making it difficult to cancel a recurring bill, the case says.

“These practices are immoral, unethical, oppressive, and unscrupulous, and demonstrate an industry-wide practice of maximizing profits by intimidating consumers and ignoring consumers’ legal rights,” the filing scathes.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in Illinois who, within the past three years, was charged a Massage Envy membership fee after notifying the company in writing of their cancellation of a preauthorized electronic funds transfer.

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