The district court of St. Georg, Hamburg has recently issued a ruling on the handling of membership fees for sports clubs with affiliated fitness facilities during the closure due to Corona. In its judgement from 08.03.2021 under case number 924 C 366/20, the court ruled that even for the period of complete closure of the sports facilities the individual members' obligation to pay sports club membership fees is not waived.

This applies not only to the basic membership fee, but also explicitly to additional memberships such as for sauna, swimming pool or weight rooms. If the additional offers are additional memberships in accordance with the statutes, these extended memberships are not to be regarded as user contracts with explicit obligations to provide services in return.

Although the association must, of course, in principle, provide the (additional) sports facilities, this obligation of the association finds its limits where - as during the Corona closure - the association has to close its facilities for the benefit of all due to official restrictions.

In our opinion, this ruling correctly underlines the difference between a self-organised non-profit association and a commercial fitness studio. It takes into account the "community and solidarity idea" of the association and for the first time provides a certain security that associations that have had to limit their services due to Corona will have the chance to survive economically and to be able to provide services and facilities to all members to the usual extent in the future.

If you have any questions on these or other topics relating to membership fees, please contact RA Jens Blaffert - Jens.Blaffert@ksp.de / 040 450 65 0

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