Maine
No Maine statute on a service deposit was found, so a 2-part court test decides: an amount set in advance holds only if the loss from a broken booking is very difficult to estimate and the amount is a reasonable forecast of it, judged when the client booked. Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court enforces a good-faith attempt to set that sum, and an excessive one suggests no good-faith estimate was made. A deposit that tracks the shop’s real costs of holding the appointment, such as design time and the reserved chair, is on firmer ground than one far above them.
Does a non-refundable deposit hold up in Maine?
In Interstate Industrial Uniform Rental Service v. Couri Pontiac, a contract to rent and clean uniforms, Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court enforced the clause because the company’s up-front costs of taking on a customer, such as uniforms, tailoring and a sales commission, made its loss from a cancellation real and hard to measure. The amount is judged as of the time the contract was formed, and an excessive sum suggests the parties made no good-faith effort to estimate the actual loss. In Raisin Memorial Trust v. Casey, the Court called the test one of reasonableness; whether it is met turns on the facts, so a disputed amount usually needs a hearing.
“an agreement made in advance of breach, fixing the damages thereon, is not enforceable unless the damages caused by the breach are very difficult to estimate accurately and the amount so fixed is a reasonable forecast of the amount necessary to justly compensate one party for the loss occasioned by the breach.” Interstate Industrial Uniform Rental Service, Inc. v. Couri Pontiac, Inc., 355 A.2d 913 (Me. 1976) · Raisin Memorial Trust v. Casey, 2008 ME 63, 945 A.2d 1211
Showing your refund policy
No refund-policy disclosure statute was found. The Legislature’s law library says there appear to be no Maine statutes on returning general merchandise; the Attorney General’s Consumer Law Guide chapters on consumer contracts, the Unfair Trade Practices Act and miscellaneous rights carry no refund-posting rule; and Title 10’s chapter on Required Disclosures to Consumers covers free-trial offers, not refund policies.
Body-art rules and money
Maine’s tattoo and piercing rules each require a receipt to every client. A tattoo receipt sets out the shop’s name and address, the artist’s name and signature, and the type and location of the tattoo; a piercing receipt sets out the shop’s name, address and contact number, and the piercer’s name and signature. Neither receipt has to show a price or a payment, and nothing in either rule addresses deposits, cancellations or refunds. A deposit’s own record, the amount, the policy’s words and the moment they were agreed, sits beside that receipt and does not replace it.
Read: 10-144 C.M.R. ch. 210, Rules Relating to Tattooing, § 6(C) · 10-144 C.M.R. ch. 209, Rules Relating to Body Piercing, § 6(C)
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.