No break
from
Cancellation.
No break
from
Cancellation.
of
Is a gym allowed to quickly offer members who want to cancel their membership a free trial period on the legally required confirmation page? Or is the confirmation page reserved solely for the cancellation process?
A gym, a cancel button, and a break
A consumer advocacy group filed a lawsuit against a gym operator that offered its members the option to enter into paid contracts for the use of the gyms online. In the footer of the website, the company provided a button labeled “Cancel Contract”—as required by law since 2022 for continuing contracts on the Internet.
Anyone who clicked this button was taken to a page that contained a cancellation form. So far, this complies with legal requirements. The problem lay at the top of this page: there, set against an image of a man working out, was a prominent notice with the headline “How about taking a break?” and an orange button labeled “Pause your contract via self-service.” Members who wanted to cancel were thus presented with an alternative offer immediately after clicking the cancellation button.
The consumer association viewed this as a violation of the law and filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court dismissed this part of the lawsuit, ruling that the notice was not intrusive, was not a pop-up, was not repeated, and did not significantly distract from the cancellation process. This, the court found, satisfied the legal requirements.
The Federal Court of Justice saw it differently.
What the Law Actually Requires
The Federal Court of Justice overturned the Düsseldorf ruling with Judgment of July 16, 2026 – Case No. I ZR 200/25 on this crucial point and ordered the gym to cease and desist. The reasoning is of a general nature and extends far beyond this specific case.
The court first determined that the law provides for a two-step cancellation procedure for contracts in e-commerce. In the first step, the consumer clicks the so-called “cancel” button. This takes the consumer directly to the so-called confirmation page, where they can enter the information required for cancellation and confirm the cancellation by clicking another button labeled “Cancel Now” or an equivalent phrase.
The crux of the decision is whether this confirmation page may contain only the elements required by law, or whether additional information, offers, or notices are permitted. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) affirmed the exhaustive nature of the statutory provision: The confirmation page may not contain any information, offers, or details beyond the information required by law and the confirmation button.
Distracting designs—such as, in the case at hand, the visual element posing the question, “How about taking a break?”, an promotional explanatory text, and the “Pause Self-Service Contract” button—are impermissible regardless of whether termination remains technically possible, because they carry the risk of effectively making it more difficult to complete the termination process.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) based this ruling on three grounds. The wording, the structure of the regulations, and the purpose of the provision all consistently required that the confirmation page be intended solely for recording the information necessary for termination and for submitting the notice of termination. An offer to suspend the contract instead would add an additional, unanticipated step to the two-step procedure prescribed by law. With this provision, the legislature intended to create a technically equally simple counterpart to the existing option for placing orders in electronic commerce. It would be contrary to this objective if the confirmation page were used as an advertising space or as a venue for alternative offers.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) also explicitly clarified that companies are by no means generally prohibited from advertising offers to remain with the company or options to take a break. Such information may, for example, be placed near the cancellation button—as long as it does not interfere with the constant availability and easy accessibility of that button. According to the ruling, the line is thus clearly drawn at the moment the cancellation button is clicked: after that, the confirmation page is blocked from displaying advertisements and alternative offers.
What Companies Need to Do Now
The ruling does not apply only to gyms. It applies to all companies that offer ongoing contracts online and are legally required to provide a cancellation button. These include, among others, streaming services, software subscriptions, mobile phone providers, magazine publishers, and many other providers.
If you want to check your own confirmation page, you should ask yourself the following questions: Does the page to which the cancellation button leads contain any content beyond the cancellation form and the confirmation button? This includes advertising banners, alternative offers, retention offers, and pause options—but, according to the wording of the ruling, it likely also includes any other additional content. If so, this content must be removed in accordance with the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruling.
Companies that wish to inform customers about alternatives to cancellation may continue to do so—but only before the cancellation button is clicked. Such information can be placed, for example, immediately next to or below the cancellation button, but it must be designed in such a way that it does not interfere with the ease of finding and using the cancellation button itself.
Conclusion
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruling sets a clear standard for the format of the acknowledgment page in termination proceedings. Aside from information regarding the termination and its acknowledgment, no other information should be included.
Whether, for example, a brief, factual privacy notice with no promotional content falls under this category remains a follow-up question to which the ruling provides no answer.
We are happy to
advise you about
E-Commerce!
