Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has no statute on keeping a deposit for a personal service; the rule comes from its Supreme Court. A sum agreed in advance holds when it came from a good-faith effort to estimate the likely loss, that loss is hard to pin down, and the amount is reasonable. A sum set to punish a no-show is a penalty, and one well above the loss of a missed appointment is exposed as one; among the court’s reasons for refusing penalties is that a party should not profit from the other’s default. Pennsylvania’s plain-language law covers written consumer agreements for services.
Does a non-refundable deposit hold up in Pennsylvania?
The law’s word for a set sum agreed in advance is liquidated damages.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in Pantuso Motors v. Corestates Bank, describes liquidated damages as a sum arrived at by a good-faith effort to estimate in advance the damage a breach will probably cause, and a penalty as a sum set as a punishment, the threat of which is meant to prevent the breach. It has declined to adopt the exact wording of the Restatement, a legal treatise, but allows liquidated damages only where the amount is reasonable and the harm of a breach is hard to assess, and it refuses to enforce a penalty partly because a party should not profit from the other’s default. The case itself turned on a statute; its account of the contract rule is the court’s own statement of Pennsylvania law.
“only in cases where the amount is reasonable and there is a difficulty in assessing the harm that would be caused by a breach” Pantuso Motors, Inc. v. Corestates Bank, N.A., 568 Pa. 601, 798 A.2d 1277 (2002)
Showing your refund policy
No refund-policy disclosure statute was found. The full text of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law was read and searched for refund and return duties; the only ones are for home solicitation cancellations, dog purchases and online marketplaces. The Attorney General’s consumer protection regulations (37 Pa. Code Part V) have 4 chapters, and none is a refund-policy rule.
Body-art rules and money
Nothing about deposits, refunds, prices or payment records in 18 Pa.C.S. § 6311, the state law on tattooing and piercing minors, or in the 2 local body-art rules read: the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Body Art Regulations and the Erie County Department of Health’s Body Art Establishment Regulations. Both mention only license and certificate fees, fines and enforcement costs.
Read: 18 Pa.C.S. § 6311 · Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Body Art Regulations · Erie County Department of Health, Body Art Establishment Regulations (May 2016)
What reaches your deposit page
A written consumer contract for services has to be easy to read
Pennsylvania’s Plain Language Consumer Contract Act covers a written agreement in which a consumer buys services, mainly for personal, family or household purposes, and a written deposit policy for a service is one. It has to be written, organized and designed to be easy to read and understand, and a court weighs guidelines such as short words, sentences and paragraphs, active verbs, at most 1 condition to a sentence, and no double negatives. A seller who fails owes the client’s actual loss, $100 in damages the statute sets, court costs and reasonable attorney fees, unless it made a good-faith and reasonable effort to comply.
“shall be written, organized and designed so that they are easy to read and understand” Plain Language Consumer Contract Act, 73 P.S. § 2201 and following
- The default deposit policy is 3 short sentences in plain words, and you can write your own. Whatever it says, your client sees all of it before paying.
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.