Opening a studio in Oregon: the new waiver law, presale trust and no sales tax

October 14, 2026

This is for anyone opening a Pilates, yoga, barre or boutique fitness studio in Oregon. The news is your waiver. Since April 7, 2026, Oregon law lets a fitness operator require a written release of ordinary-negligence claims, signed by an adult member or by a parent for a member under 18. The law protects the release only if it meets the law's conditions, and they are specific. The other rule to know before you sell a founding membership: money taken before you open goes into an Oregon trust account.

The 2026 release law

Senate Bill 1517 became Oregon Laws 2026, chapter 132. The Governor approved it on April 7, 2026, and it took effect that day as an emergency measure. Section 1(2) reads:

“Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, an operator may require a participant in a sport, fitness or recreational activity who is 18 years of age or older, or a parent or guardian on behalf of a participant in a sport, fitness or recreational activity who is under 18 years of age, to release the operator from any claim for damages for injuries to the participant resulting from ordinary negligence that arises out of the sport, fitness or recreational activity, or out of volunteering to maintain facilities or places used for a sport, fitness or recreational activity, if the participant or parent or guardian voluntarily signs a clear and unambiguous written release disclosing risks associated with the sport, fitness or recreational activity or volunteering and waiving the operator’s liability for damages for injuries resulting from those risks. A release described in this subsection is not per se unconscionable or void as contrary to public policy.”

The conditions, one at a time

• You are an operator. The law means a person that offers “the opportunity to participate in a sport, fitness or recreational activity” or operates a facility where people do.
• The activity is one “involving elements of inherent risk.” The list ends with “athletic or fitness competitions, fitness activities and training activities.”
• The person who signs is the participant, if 18 or older. For a participant under 18 it is a parent or guardian.
• They sign voluntarily.
• The release is written, “clear and unambiguous,” discloses the risks of the activity, and waives your liability for injuries resulting from those risks.
• It covers ordinary negligence and nothing more.

What no release can cover

Section 1(3) lists claims an operator may not require anyone to release:

• Anything beyond ordinary negligence: gross negligence, reckless conduct, willful misconduct or intentional torts.
• Negligence per se.
• “Claims relating to the maintenance or inspection of safety equipment supplied by the operator.”
• Negligent safety-related training of an employee or agent whose conduct causes injury.
• Abuse as defined in ORS 419B.005, or physical or sexual assault of an adult.
• Negligent hiring, training, credentialing, supervision or retention of an employee or agent whose conduct amounts to gross negligence, recklessness, willful misconduct or an intentional tort.
• The operation or use of any vehicle.

A release written broader than this is not thrown out. It “shall be construed within the limits” of the section (1(4)). Whether a risk is inherent to the activity “is a question of law” (1(5)), so a judge decides it.

Which injuries it covers

Section 2 says the law “applies to releases, whether executed before, on or after the effective date of this 2026 Act, of claims that arise on or after the effective date.” A release a member signed in 2025 can cover an injury in May 2026, if its text meets the conditions. An injury before April 7, 2026 falls outside the new law.

For those earlier injuries the leading case is Bagley v. Mt. Bachelor (2014). A snowboarder had signed a season-pass release. The Oregon Supreme Court weighed “the totality of the circumstances of a particular transaction” and held that “enforcement of the release at issue in this case would be unconscionable.” That was a ski area, not a studio, and the court made the answer turn on the facts of each sale.

What to change in your waiver

The law rewards a release that names the risks of what you teach. A one-line release of all claims discloses none. Write the risks of your classes in plain words, release ordinary negligence only, and add a line for a parent or guardian to sign for anyone under 18. If you teach on reformers or other equipment you supply, ask your lawyer how the safety-equipment exception reads against your maintenance.

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. That also means Frontmat keeps a record of which wording each member signed, your old text or your new one. It is plain text, so emphasis goes in CAPITALS. We never supply waiver language. Get yours from an Oregon lawyer.

The health spa law

ORS 646A.030(4) defines a health spa as a person engaged, “as a primary purpose, in the sale of instruction, training, assistance or use of facilities that are purported to assist patrons in physical exercise, weight control or figure development.” The only exclusion is a facility “owned and operated by the State of Oregon or any of its political subdivisions.” There is no yoga or dance exemption. We found no Oregon ruling on whether a yoga studio is a health spa. A studio selling exercise classes fits the words, so plan on being one.

The chapter has no registration, no license and no bond. It regulates the contract and the money you take before you open.

Founding members and the Oregon trust account

Section 646A.038: “All moneys paid to a health spa by a buyer prior to the opening of the facility shall promptly be deposited by the health spa in a trust account.” The account is at a bank, savings and loan, mutual savings bank or licensed escrow agent located in Oregon. Within seven days of the first deposit you notify the Attorney General's office in writing of the depository's name, address and location. Each buyer gets a written receipt and the same details.

If a buyer cancels, or you miss the opening date in the contract, you give a full refund within 10 days, with the buyer's share of any interest. And while the spa is not fully operational, or is promising future construction or improvements, “All sums received by a health spa in excess of the health spa’s normal monthly dues shall be placed in escrow.”

In Frontmat a membership can be sold before opening with billing starting on opening day, so a founding member is charged nothing until the doors open. A founding membership can be capped at a number of spots. Section 646A.038 reaches money paid before opening, so on our reading a founding member billed from opening day leaves nothing to put in trust. The contract still carries the completion date of the facility, and the buyer can cancel if you miss it (646A.034(2) and (5)(d)). A pack sold before opening is money before opening. Have an Oregon lawyer confirm that reading before you rely on it.

What the member contract must say

• A written list of the prices of every plan, given to each prospective buyer. You “may not sell any form or plan of health spa services not included in the list” (646A.032).
• In writing, with a copy at signing, naming who provides the services and describing them, with your rules or an acknowledgment that the buyer received them (646A.034). A prospective buyer can ask for copies of the contract and rules before signing and keep them (646A.036).
• How long you are obliged to provide the services. “The duration shall not exceed three years from the date of the contract” (646A.034(4)).
• Cancellation if the buyer dies or becomes physically unable to use a substantial portion of the services, if you go out of business, if you move the facility closest to the buyer more than five additional miles from their residence, if a facility is not finished by the date in the contract, or if you materially change the services promised (646A.034(5)).
• A refund on cancellation of the contract price divided by the weeks in the term, times the weeks remaining (646A.034(6)).
• Under a conspicuous caption in capital letters and boldfaced type, the BUYER'S RIGHT TO CANCEL: written notice before midnight of the third business day after signing, and “the health spa will return to you within 15 days all amounts you have paid” (646A.034(7)).

Any waiver of the chapter by a buyer “is void and unenforceable” (646A.040). Violating it is an unlawful trade practice (ORS 646.608(1)(cc)). A member who loses money to a willful violation can sue for actual damages or $200, whichever is greater, and a court or jury may award punitive damages (ORS 646.638(1)).

Monthly memberships and the auto-renewal law

A membership that bills until the member cancels is a “continuous service” under ORS 646A.293. Section 646A.295 makes it unlawful to charge the card “without first obtaining the consumer’s affirmative consent.” Before the sale, next to the request for consent, you show clearly and conspicuously that it continues until canceled, the cancellation policy, the recurring charge, and any minimum purchase. Afterward the member gets an acknowledgment they can keep, with those terms and how to cancel. You offer “a toll-free telephone number, electronic mail address, a post-office address only when the person directly bills the consumer, or another cost-effective, timely and easy-to-use mechanism for cancellation.” A material change in terms needs its own notice first. Health spas are not on the exempt list.

What that means for memberships and packs

In Frontmat, memberships bill monthly through Stripe on the member's card. There is no annual or multi-month membership. Class packs can expire after a number of days you set, or never. In Oregon we would not choose never. On our reading a pack with no expiry has no end to its duration, and the statute caps duration at three years.

No sales tax

The Department of Revenue says Oregon “doesn't have a general sales or use/transaction tax.” Packs and memberships carry no sales tax. Frontmat does not add a sales tax line, and in Oregon you do not need one.

Workers' comp and texts

Oregon's Workers' Compensation Division says “Oregon requires almost all employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance for their employees,” and “If you employ one or more workers, you are an employer.” A worker is anyone you pay who is not an independent contractor, and you do not have to cover independent contractors. Your first employee is the line.

A 2025 law (Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 580) made a text message sent to sell a telephone solicitation under ORS 646.561. A solicitation may not go out before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m., or more than three times to the same person in 24 hours, unless you have an established business relationship, meaning a transaction in the past 18 months, and someone who asks you to stop must not get another (ORS 646.563). The same hours and three-a-day cap apply to any text sent by an automatic dialing and announcing device, sales or not, with exceptions for an established business relationship and for a reply to the person's own message (ORS 646A.372(5)). On our reading, an automated booking text to a member who has bought from you in the past 18 months fits the exception, while a promotional text to a lead must keep to the hours and the cap. Frontmat sends booking texts only (waitlist offers, confirmations and cancellations) to members who opted in, and stores the time and wording of each opt-in.

Before you sign anything

1. Decide how founding members pay. Bill from opening day, or open a trust account at an Oregon bank, savings and loan, mutual savings bank or licensed escrow agent and notify the Attorney General within seven days of the first deposit.
2. Write a price list of every plan you sell.
3. Write the member contract: duration of three years or less, the five cancel grounds, the weekly pro rata refund, and the BUYER'S RIGHT TO CANCEL in capitals and bold with the 15-day refund.
4. Set pack expiries at three years or less.
5. Set up the auto-renewal disclosures, consent and an easy way to cancel for memberships.
6. Have an Oregon lawyer rewrite your release under chapter 132: name the risks, ordinary negligence only, and a parent or guardian signs for anyone under 18.
7. Get workers' comp coverage before your first hire.

This is our reading of ORS 646A, Oregon Laws 2026 chapter 132 and the cases as of October 14, 2026. It is not legal advice. Confirm the health spa questions with the Oregon Department of Justice and have an Oregon lawyer write your release.

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