The TanWall Blog

A teen tanning ban has been upheld in Germany after tanning salon owners complained. There was an appeal by a 17 year old girl who claimed that the ban infringed on her rights, but the court denied the appeal and upheld the ban on the grounds of public safety. The bans seem to be holding up in other parts of the world. Especially Europe and Canada.

Legislation is being introduced in Utah for a teen ban as well. The editorial in the link is definitely against the measure, stating that it creates the problem of government getting into people’s lives. We’ll see how that legislation fares.

Also, for an alternate look at the tan tax, here’s an article that talks about how it is faring over the past year. According to the article, about a quarter of salon owners experienced a loss in business, while the rest of them didn’t seem to have too serious of problems. Many business absorbed the costs themselves, or shared the costs with the customer, while the rest passed the costs on to the customer. Many customers were against the tax, but in the end didn’t mind paying it to tan. Of course, the government hasn’t collected nearly as much revenue as originally projected, calling into question the effectiveness of the tax.

It’s 2012 and tanning salon owners everywhere are making do with what they have to work with. The California Legislature just passed tons of bills last session, with many of them going into effect this week, including a ban on UV bed tanning for anyone under 18. This precedent could lead to other states passing similar laws; this is also happening in many other countries as well, such as in the UK and Canada.

In response, tanning salon owners are rethinking their marketing strategies and adopting other services such as spray tanning which can help re-absorb those lost demographics.

One state, Nebraska, is actually considering a bill that will exempt tanning salons from sales and use taxes. This will be an interesting development to keep an eye on, especially if the bill passes and other states begin to follow suit.

Keep checking back for updates on the state of the tanning industry!