Arkansas
In Arkansas a kept deposit holds when, looking forward from the day the client agreed, both sides could see that a missed appointment would cost the shop something hard to price, and the amount bears some reasonable proportion to that loss. Because the court judges from the day of agreement and not after the fact, a shop that later refills the slot is not automatically barred from keeping the deposit, as long as the amount was proportionate when agreed. A policy that says in plain words what the deposit covers and when it is kept, agreed before payment, is the shop’s evidence of what both sides expected.
Does a non-refundable deposit hold up in Arkansas?
The law’s word for a set sum agreed in advance is liquidated damages.
The Arkansas Supreme Court’s test comes from Alley v. Rodgers (1980), a down payment the buyer agreed would count as earnest money, a buyer’s deposit toward a purchase, and as liquidated damages: looking at the contract from the day it was made, the parties must have seen that a failure to perform would cause damage, that damage must be hard to work out, and the sum must bear some reasonable proportion to it. The court looked forward from the day of the contract, not back from the breach, and upheld an award of the $2,000 down payment even though the property sold again within weeks. Smith v. Dixon (1965) measured the sum against the purchase price: 7.5 percent of the price was not a penalty because it bore a reasonable relation to that price.
“from a prospective view of the contract, it appears (1) that the parties contemplated that damages would flow from a failure to perform the contract; (2) that such damages would be indeterminate or difficult to ascertain; and (3) that the sum bears some reasonable proportion to the damages which the parties contemplated” Alley v. Rodgers, 269 Ark. 262, 599 S.W.2d 739 (1980) · Smith v. Dixon, 238 Ark. 1018, 386 S.W.2d 244 (1965)
Showing your refund policy
No refund-policy disclosure law was found. Title 4 of the Arkansas Code (Business and Commercial Law), in the state’s August 2020 release, was searched for “refund policy”, “return policy”, “refund or exchange”, “exchange policy”, “cancellation policy” and “no refund”, and no duty to post or disclose a refund policy turned up. The Attorney General’s consumer page on refunds says the same from the other side: stores do not have to accept returns at will, and it names no posting law.
Body-art rules and money
Nothing about client deposits or refunds in the Arkansas State Board of Health’s Rules and Regulations Pertaining to Body Art Establishments (effective February 2016), read in full.
Read: Ark. State Board of Health, Rules and Regulations Pertaining to Body Art Establishments (2016)
This page summarizes public law in plain language, with the source each point comes from, read at the source on 2026-09-23. It is not legal advice.