Premier Fitness Clubs

554 Words3 Pages
The Competition Bureau found Premier Fitness “did not adequately disclose additional fees that consumers would be obligated to pay in order to acquire memberships, thereby creating a misleading impression as to the true price of memberships.” As the result of the advertising strategy, the price of membership was greater than advertised, which violated of the competition act as well as the basic consumerism trend that has aimed to empower consumers and increase their rights. In order to maximize the profit, Premier Fitness employed the misleading/false advertising to convince customers to enter contracts with the fitness club that resulted in materially higher undisclosed costs. Information was not adequately disclosed to portray the true costs associated with gym membership and cancellation of membership was found to be excessively difficult. Premier Fitness also was found to be withdrawing money from cancelled customer accounts which is also unethical behavior. Its profit oriented objectives resulted unethical activities and $200,000 penalty. Consumers are making decisions based on the advertisements. The misleading/false advertising will lead the consumers to make wrong decisions. This action is also monopolistic behavior, which is unethical and limited by the competition act. The monopolistic behavior could affect the competition negatively and damage the smaller competitors. The customers made the wrong decisions based on Premier Fitness’ misleading advertising and resulted the customers suffered financial losses. Premier Fitness has violated many of the “dos” and “Don’ts” in its advertising. For example, excessive small print disclaimer was used in its advertisement. The fine print failed to change the general impression conveyed by an advertisement. The material information was not fully disclosed in the advertisements, as some information was

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