Training programs over $50, court-booking packages, and multi-session memberships all qualify as "personal development services" under the CPA. That triggers strict contract, refund, and renewal rules most clubs never knew existed.
What the law requires
- Written agreement delivered to the consumer, in prescribed format (s. 30)
- Mandatory 10-day cooling-off period — consumer may cancel for any reason; refund within 15 days; no cancellation fees
- Bolded "Notice of Rescission Rights" on the contract — if missing, cancel-window extends to one year
- No stacking: cannot sign the same consumer into an identical contract (s. 32)
- Maximum contract term: 1 year; installment option required for long-term
- No unfair or misleading representations (Part III)
How SportsX helps you manage it
- Dynamic contract generator auto-fills your legal name, services, fees, HST, cooling-off notice — every PDF is CPA-compliant by default
- Funds auto-held in pending state for 10 days; system flags accounts still within rescission window
- Renewal workflow under s. 31 — prevents illegal re-stacking
- Digital audit trail: timestamp, IP, device, doc-version hash — the clock only starts once the consumer has the document in hand, and we prove it
- Refund automation with 15-day SLA
Penalty: Up to $250,000 corporate fine + $50,000 personal fine and up to 2 years imprisonment per offence under CPA 2002 s. 116 — plus restitution orders and class-action exposure.