Opening a studio in Georgia: AG contract approval and the presale felony

October 14, 2026

This is for anyone opening a Pilates, yoga, barre or boutique fitness studio in Georgia. Georgia has no health spa license and no bond. What it has is stricter. No membership contract is valid or enforceable until the Attorney General certifies a copy, and selling memberships before you open without the AG's written approval and an escrow account is a felony for each sale.

The health spa law reaches class studios

Georgia's Fair Business Practices Act defines a health spa as an establishment that provides, “as one of its primary purposes,” services or facilities meant to help people improve their physical condition or appearance “through change in weight, weight control, treatment, dieting, or exercise” (O.C.G.A. 10-1-392(a)(16)). The term includes anything called an “exercise gym,” “health studio” or “health club.” The only exclusions are nonprofits, facilities owned by physicians practicing medicine there, and those run by hospitals and other health care facilities.

There is no carve-out for yoga, Pilates or a studio that only teaches classes. On our reading, a for-profit class studio is a health spa. The rules are in section 10-1-393.2.

No license and no bond, but the AG approves your contract

There is no registration fee and no bond. Instead, section 10-1-393.2(o) says no health spa contract “shall be valid or enforceable” unless you have on file a statement signed by the Attorney General certifying that a copy of the contract is on file and complies. Every later change goes to the AG for approval before you offer it to anyone.

The filing for a studio that will not sell before opening is the Consumer Protection Division's two-page Health Spa Information Form. It asks for your ownership, a tax ID (or a sole owner's Social Security number) and your business bank. You attach the contract you will use and sign before a notary.

File before you sell anything. A member who signed a contract the AG had not approved can recover everything paid plus anything claimed owing, on top of any other remedy. Running a health spa in violation of the approval rule is a misdemeanor, and each day counts as a separate violation. A contract that breaks any part of the section is void.

What the member contract must say

• Written, the entire agreement, a completed copy handed over at signing, showing the date and your name and address. No term over 36 months (b).
• Your rules, in the contract or an attachment (c), and your cancellation and refund policy on its face (d).
• The seven business day cancel paragraph, in the statute's words, separated from all other paragraphs, with the last day to cancel filled in before the member signs. A member who cancels in time gets everything back less the value of services used, which can never exceed $100 (e).
• The 30-day substantial change clause, in at least 10-point bold (f).
• Cancellation on death, or on total and permanent disability (a condition lasting more than 45 days). You keep a reasonable predetermined fee plus the months already used, pro rata (g), (k).
• A statement that anyone with a history of heart disease should consult a physician before joining (h).
• Refunds within 30 days of a cancellation notice (m).

Georgia courts have voided spa contracts over formatting. Justia's annotations to the section summarize Georgia Receivables v. Welch (2000): the cancel language was not set apart and the member was not given a specific last day to cancel, so the contract was void and unenforceable. The Consumer Protection Division publishes a sample contract with the required language. Start from it.

Two ways to take payment

Section 10-1-393.2(i) makes every contract follow one of two forms. Both must say that no further payments are due if the studio closes and offers no substantially similar location within ten miles.

What that means for your products

The statute speaks of membership contracts and does not mention class packs. We would put packs under a contract with the option 2 notice rather than sell them outside one.

In Frontmat, memberships bill monthly on the member's card through Stripe, which fits option 1 when there is no signup fee. Class packs can expire after a number of days you set, or never. The waiver members sign in Frontmat is not this contract. Your AG-approved contract is its own document.

Georgia also has an online auto-renewal law, but it covers plans that renew for a definite term of “more than 31 days” (10-1-439.7). A month-to-month membership is outside it.

Founding members: a felony per sale

Section 10-1-393.2(l) says a studio “shall not enter or offer to enter into a health spa agreement with a consumer unless the health spa is fully operational and available for use.” That means every facility, piece of equipment and service you promise is working when the contract is signed.

The exception has four parts. You file the AG's presale forms (a six-page packet). You get the AG's written approval to sell before opening. You put every presale dollar in a single account at a Georgia bank the AG approves, released only on the AG's written certification that you are open. The bank's fees are yours. Members then have seven business days after you open to cancel, less at most $50 for services received.

Each sale that skips this is a separate felony (p).

In Frontmat a membership can be sold before opening with billing starting on opening day, so a founding member pays nothing until the doors open. In Georgia that does not get you out. The ban is on offering or entering into the agreement, not only on taking money. Sell founding memberships only after the AG has approved your presale, or open first and sell from day one.

Sales tax: no ruling on studios

Georgia taxes “fees, or charges made for admission to places of amusement, sports, or entertainment” (O.C.G.A. 48-8-2). The list runs from bowling alleys and skating rinks to “any other place where an admission fee is charged.” The state rate is 4 percent (48-8-30).

We did not find a Department of Revenue ruling on a fitness studio. Two letter rulings come close and point different ways. In LR SUT-2015-18 (2015), the Department said an indoor climbing gym's memberships, day passes and climbing classes are all taxable. In LR SUT-2016-23 (2016), it said golf lessons from a professional are not taxed because “sports instruction is not a service identified as taxable by statute or regulation.” On our reading, a membership that buys use of your space is likely taxable, and a class sold as instruction has an argument that it is not. A letter ruling applies only to the business that asked. Ask a Georgia CPA, or the Department for your own ruling, before you set prices. If anything you sell is taxable, build the tax into the price or collect it with another tool. Frontmat does not add a sales tax line to packs or memberships today.

Your waiver

Georgia enforces gym releases. In Herren v. Sucher (2013), the Court of Appeals called a gym's membership, fitness assessment and personal training releases “clear and express waivers and releases from liability.” It added that “it is well established in this state that the inclusion of exculpatory clauses in a health or fitness club contract does not render the contract unenforceable as against public policy.” The releases barred the member's ordinary negligence claims. The trial court had held they did not bar his gross negligence claims. The gym's membership agreement in that case had been approved by the state.

We found no Georgia appellate decision that settles whether a parent can waive a child's claim. In Doe I v. YWCA of Greater Atlanta (Ga. Ct. App. 2013), a trial court held that a release a mother signed at a family shelter barred her 4-year-old's claims. The Court of Appeals affirmed on other grounds and said it “need not address” the release. Have a Georgia lawyer draft the part parents sign.

In Frontmat the waiver is your own text. Members sign it once, at their first booking, with a typed name. We store the time and a fingerprint of the exact wording they signed, so a later edit never changes what an earlier member agreed to. It is plain text, so emphasis is done in CAPITALS. We never supply waiver language.

Workers' comp

Georgia's workers' comp law does not apply to an employer with “regularly in service less than three employees in the same business within this state” (34-9-2). At three regular employees you need coverage.

Before you sign anything

1. Decide your menu. Monthly autopay with no signup fee fits option 1. Packs and any fee need the option 2 notice.
2. Have a Georgia lawyer adapt the Consumer Protection Division's sample contract with your rules, refund policy and payment form.
3. File the notarized Health Spa Information Form with the contract, and sell nothing until you hold the AG's signed certification.
4. If you want founding members, file the presale packet instead, and get written approval and the escrow account before the first offer.
5. Ask a Georgia CPA whether your classes and memberships are taxable admissions.
6. Have a Georgia lawyer write the waiver, including anything for minors.
7. Send every later contract change to the AG before you use it.

This is our reading of the statutes, forms and cases as of October 14, 2026. It is not legal advice. Confirm the health spa questions with the Georgia Department of Law's Consumer Protection Division and the tax questions with the Department of Revenue.

If you are still choosing where to open, we keep the rules in every state on one page.