This month (June 2023), two large Australian companies have been fined by the ACMA for breaches of Australian spam laws. Enforcing SMS and email subscribe rules is a compliance policy for the ACMA. Thus, businesses should make sure their teams are aware of the policies which surround marketing communication and understand how to implement best practices in order to comply with Australian spam laws.

mycar Tyre & Auto, an Australian auto repair brand, has paid $1 million to ACMA for contravening the Spam Act 2003. The company was found to have sent more than 1.7 million messages which breached spam laws between January and August 2022. 

ACMA found that mycar sent almost 1.45 million emails and text without a functioning unsubscribe facility. It was also found that 276,000 emails were sent in which an individual had to provide vehicle registration details before being able to unsubscribe from future messages. And finally found that 5,000 messages were sent to individuals who had already opted out of receiving electronic marketing. 

mycar has also committed to a three-year court-enforceable independent review of their e-marketing practices and implement improvements, provide regular compliance reports to ACMA, and train their staff on Australian spam laws.

This follows Commonwealth Banks $3.55 million fine earlier this month for breaching SMS and email subscribe rules, including marketing messages which promoted users to have to log-in before being able to unsubscribe from further communication. 

Organisations must make sure that every single commercial message which is sent to individuals has a functional unsubscribe facility; meaning (a) instructions are presented clearly, (b) is actioned in the correct time frame, and (c) does not require person to give extra personal information or log-in/create an account. 

ACMA’s commitment to the regulation of spam is furthered by their recent engagement with global strategy to fight against scams, unsolicited telemarketing and spam. ACMA has entered a renewed memorandum understating as part of the Unsolicited Communications Enforcement Network, alongside Korea, Canada, Netherlands, UK and New Zealand. The agreement assists the ACMA when investigating cross-border issues, whilst encouraging further engagement and information-sharing between agencies.