District of Columbia
In the District a kept deposit holds when it is in proportion to the loss the shop could foresee at booking. The D.C. Court of Appeals is most skeptical of a forfeiture one side writes and a consumer can only accept, which is what a shop’s deposit policy is. A deposit designed to make a no-show more profitable to the shop than doing the work would be is void as a penalty, and in Bassin (2003) a late fee that failed the courts’ own test drew 3 times the damages under the Consumer Protection Procedures Act. So a deposit sized to what a missed appointment costs is on firmer ground than one sized to deter.
Does a non-refundable deposit hold up in District of Columbia?
The law’s word for a set sum agreed in advance is liquidated damages.
The leading case is about a consumer fee: District Cablevision v. Bassin (2003), a $5 late fee charged to cable subscribers. The D.C. Court of Appeals said the common law, the rules courts build case by case, views these clauses with a suspicious eye, most of all when one side imposes the term in a take-it-or-leave-it contract, and that an agreed sum must not be out of proportion to the damage foreseeable when the contract was made. The fee was not shockingly out of proportion to the average loss of $2.43, but a jury could find it arbitrary and excessive, and the court let the subscribers recover under the Consumer Protection Procedures Act, with 3 times their damages, while the company could recoup its actual damages.
“the liquidated damages must not be disproportionate to the level of damages reasonably foreseeable at the time of the making of the contract” District Cablevision Ltd. Partnership v. Bassin, 828 A.2d 714 (D.C. 2003)
Showing your refund policy
No refund-policy disclosure law for services was found. The D.C. Code was searched for “refund policy”, “return policy”, “refund or exchange”, “exchange policy”, “cancellation policy” and “no refunds”; “refund policy” appears only in an adoption-agency fee section. The nearest rule is for layaway, itself an advance payment: before a layaway agreement, the seller gives the buyer a written statement of its refund and exchange policies. It covers consumer goods only, so it does not reach a tattoo deposit.
Body-art rules and money
Nothing about deposits or refunds in the D.C. Code’s body artist sections (§§ 47-2853.76 to 47-2853.76e) or in DC Health’s Body Art Establishment Regulations, Title 25, Subtitle G of the DCMR, which is the District’s body-art chapter. The only money in them is license, reinspection and duplicate-license fees paid to the District.
Read: D.C. Code §§ 47-2853.76 to 47-2853.76e · 25-G DCMR, Body Art Establishment Regulations
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.