Gym Telemarketing Text Lawsuits: LA Fitness, Crunch, Orangetheory, Planet Fitness and TCPA Claims

Gyms sell memberships on volume, and many chains and franchise owners use automated texting platforms and prerecorded voicemail drops to chase leads, former members, and people who once filled out a guest pass form. The lawsuits say some of that outreach crosses the line drawn by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Three kinds of conduct show up again and again in the complaints:

• Texts after STOP. The person replied STOP or asked to be removed, and promotional texts kept coming.
• Do Not Call Registry texts. The person's number was on the National Do Not Call Registry and the gym sent two or more marketing messages within a year anyway.
• Prerecorded voice messages. The gym used a recorded sales pitch, sometimes a ringless voicemail, without the person's prior express written consent.

Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(c)(5), a person who receives more than one telephone solicitation within any 12-month period in violation of the Do Not Call rules can sue for up to $500 per violation. Every case below is a set of allegations. None of these gyms has been found liable in the cases described here.

LA Fitness (Fitness International LLC)

Bahar v. Fitness International LLC, Case No. 8:26-cv-02597, was filed on September 14, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint says the plaintiff replied with a stop instruction on or about July 30, 2026, then received at least two more LA Fitness marketing texts, including one on August 25, 2026. It brings a single count under the TCPA's Do Not Call provisions and the FCC rule that requires companies to keep and honor an internal do-not-call list. It is filed as a proposed class action, and no class has been certified.

Crunch Fitness

Kye v. Crunch Holdings, LLC, Case No. 1:25-cv-04321, was filed May 22, 2025 in the Southern District of New York against Crunch Holdings, Crunch Franchising, and Crunch, LLC. The complaint alleges the plaintiffs, in Texas and North Carolina, received unsolicited prerecorded calls promoting Crunch Fitness memberships on or about October 6, 2023. One plaintiff's claim was dismissed in November 2025, and the remaining plaintiff filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal without prejudice on July 28, 2026. No class settlement came out of it.

Orangetheory Fitness

Mancilla v. Ultimate Fitness Group, LLC d/b/a Orangetheory Fitness, Case No. 4:24-cv-00568, was filed November 25, 2024 in the District of Arizona. The complaint alleges an Orangetheory operator called and texted the plaintiff at least 24 times after he repeatedly told it to stop, and that his number had been on the Do Not Call Registry since 2016. The docket shows the case closed on March 11, 2026, and there is no public class settlement.

Planet Fitness

Gonzalez v. Planet Fitness Franchising LLC, Case No. 2:26-cv-06246, a TCPA case, was filed June 9, 2026 in the Central District of California. On July 27, 2026 the judge dismissed it after being told the case had settled, which points to an individual resolution rather than a class fund.

Gold's Gym and Anytime Fitness

Federal dockets also show TCPA suits against Gold's Gym California, LLC (Firouzkouhi, C.D. Cal., filed October 2024 and closed July 2025) and Anytime Fitness, LLC (Bukowiec, D.N.J., filed September 2025). Dozens of smaller TCPA cases name individual franchise owners and boutique studios. That pattern matters: franchise gyms are often run by separate local companies, so the right defendant may be the franchisee that sent the texts, not the national brand.

As of September 26, 2026, no court has certified a class or approved a class settlement in any of the gym text cases listed on this page. The LA Fitness case is days old, and LA Fitness had not responded to the complaint when this page was updated. The Crunch case was voluntarily dismissed, the Planet Fitness case was dismissed after a reported settlement, and the Orangetheory franchisee case closed without a public class deal.

This is typical for TCPA cases against gyms. Many end quickly, either because the gym pays the named plaintiff, because the membership agreement sends the dispute to private arbitration, or because the plaintiff cannot tie the texts to a single sender. A handful of TCPA cases do grow into large class settlements, and those are listed on our open settlements page when they open for claims.

The law itself shifted in 2025 and 2026. On June 20, 2025, the Supreme Court held in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson Corp. that district courts are not bound by the FCC's reading of the TCPA. Courts have since split on whether a text message counts as a "telephone call" under the Do Not Call section. On July 14, 2026, the Seventh Circuit held in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services that texts are not "telephone calls" under § 227(c)(5), which removes that claim for people in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. The Ninth Circuit, which covers California, held in January 2026 that texts are "calls" under a different section of the TCPA. Expect the Supreme Court to be asked to settle the question.

You may have a claim if all or most of these describe you:

• A gym, studio, or its franchise owner sent you promotional texts or prerecorded calls about memberships, classes, or specials.
• You got two or more of those messages within a 12-month period.
• Either your number was on the Do Not Call Registry at least 31 days before the messages, or you had told the gym to stop and it kept going.
• The number is a personal line you use at home, not a business number.

You probably do not have a strong claim if the only texts were about your own account (a billing reminder, a class booking confirmation, a check-in code), if you received a single text, or if you signed up for promotional texts and never opted out. Current members also face a practical hurdle: many gym membership agreements contain an arbitration clause and a class action waiver, which can force the claim into individual arbitration. That does not always end a case, since some clauses do not cover marketing texts or people who never became members, but it is worth checking before you assume a class action is available.

If you are not sure whether your messages count, our guides on spam text lawsuits and texts sent during quiet hours walk through the most common fact patterns.

The TCPA sets damages per call or text instead of requiring you to prove a dollar loss. Each unlawful call or text can carry $500 in statutory damages, and a court may raise that to $1,500 if it finds the gym acted willfully or knowingly.

Scenario	Messages	Statutory range
Two texts after STOP	2	$1,000 to $3,000
Six Do Not Call texts in a year	6	$3,000 to $9,000
24 calls and texts (as alleged in the Orangetheory case)	24	$12,000 to $36,000

Those are the numbers the statute allows if you win an individual case. They are not what class members usually receive. In a class settlement, a fixed fund is split among everyone who files, after attorney fees and costs, so individual checks are often in the tens of dollars to a few hundred dollars. Our guide to how much you can get from a TCPA lawsuit shows real payout figures from past settlements. Some states add their own remedies: the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, for example, has its own statutory damages for certain marketing texts.

Nothing on this page means you will receive money. Results depend on your records, which court you are in, and whether the gym had your consent.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227, has two parts that matter here. You can read the plain-English version in our TCPA explainer.

1. Section 227(b), prerecorded and autodialed calls. A business needs prior express written consent before it sends a prerecorded or artificial-voice sales message to a cell phone. This is the theory in the Crunch complaint.
2. Section 227(c), Do Not Call rules. The FCC's rules, at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200, bar telephone solicitations to numbers on the national registry and require companies to keep an internal do-not-call list and honor requests to stop. This is the theory in the LA Fitness and Orangetheory complaints.

The FCC strengthened opt-out rights in a rule that took effect on April 11, 2025. Under that rule, a business must honor a request to stop robocalls or robotexts made by any reasonable means, including replying STOP, QUIT, CANCEL, or UNSUBSCRIBE, within 10 business days. A gym that keeps sending promotions weeks after a STOP reply is the core fact in the LA Fitness case.

A separate FCC "one-to-one consent" rule that would have limited lead-generator consent forms never took effect. The Eleventh Circuit vacated it on January 24, 2025 in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC, so gym consent forms are judged under the older rules.

The TCPA does not contain its own limitations period, so federal courts apply the general federal catch-all. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1658(a), TCPA claims generally must be filed within four years of the call or text. Texts from 2022 or earlier may already be too old, and each message has its own clock.

Other timing points:

• Registry timing: the Do Not Call protection applies to numbers that have been on the registry for at least 31 days.
• Opt-out timing: under the FCC rule, gyms get up to 10 business days to process a STOP request, so a single text the next day may not count.
• Class timing: if a proposed class action is pending, the filing can pause the clock for people in the proposed class, but relying on that is risky. Our statute of limitations entry explains the basics.

1. Screenshot everything. Capture each text with the date, time, and sending number, and save any voicemails. Do not delete the thread.
2. Save your STOP reply. If you have not opted out yet, reply STOP and screenshot it. The date matters.
3. Confirm your registry status. Check or register your number at donotcall.gov and keep the confirmation email. Our guide on how to stop robocalls and spam texts covers carrier blocking too.
4. Find your membership paperwork. If you were ever a member, locate the agreement so an attorney can check for an arbitration clause.
5. Do not sign anything from the gym that releases claims in exchange for a free month or a small credit until you understand what you are giving up.

Independent attorneys who handle TCPA cases usually work on contingency, meaning no fee unless there is a recovery. A free case review takes about two minutes. You can also see related claims on our robocall lawsuit page.