The Commerce Commission has filed charges under the Fair Trading Act against New Zealand’s largest gym chain CityFitness for alleged misleading membership price advertising.
The Commission alleges an advertised membership price did not include a compulsory 3% fee, which it says was inaccurately labelled as a “transaction fee”.
Businesses should not exclude compulsory fees from their advertised prices as it goes against consumers’ right to accurate pricing, said general manager of competition, fair trading and credit Vanessa Horne.
“It shouldn’t be a difficult exercise to work out how much your gym costs.”
The charge period for the alleged misleading claims was between December 21, 2023 and April 30, 2025.
The Commission also said it believed the 3% was unrelated to the cost of processing a transaction.
“Even a small per-person fee can add up to substantial profits for a large business,” Horne said.
“If a business states a fee or surcharge is for the cost of processing the transaction, this must be truthful and accurate.”
CityFitness allegedly continued to advertise the weekly price without including the fee following its introduction, “effectively advertising a price that people couldn’t get”, Horne said.
“CityFitness also positioned itself as offering one of the cheapest membership options, at $6.99 per week. Although after adding on the compulsory fee, this was not always the case.”
She said there was no excuse for false or misleading advertising.
“Consumers often shop around for the best deal, so if a business is advertising its prices as cheaper than they really are, it could give them an unfair advantage over competitors.
“This investigation and the charges we have filed should send a clear message – when we see prices that we think are misleading, the Commission will act so that businesses are held to account.”
Charges were filed under sections 11, 13(g) and 40(1) of the Fair Trading Act.