Stop Spamming Customers or Face a Fine of $310,000
Online shopping giant, Kogan, has been fined $310,000 for repeated breaches of anti-spam laws. Their conduct relates to over 42 million marketing emails sent to its customers and those who had opted-in to the marketing service. However, an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority found that the recipients were not able to easily unsubscribe.
Kogan’s marketing emails required its recipients to create an account and password for its website before they were able to unsubscribe to their emails. The argument made by Kogan was that this was a security measure required to ensure that only users of an account were authorised to make changes.
The Spam Act 2003 (Cth) provides businesses’ with a set of rules that they must follow for their email marketing. Section 18 of the Act requires there to be a message in the email allowing the recipient to unsubscribe and that this message must be clear and conspicuous. A single breach of this provision gives rise to a fine of $1,652.20.
The large sum of Kogan’s fine is attributable to the significant number of contraventions and the convoluted process it had in place for allowing recipients to unsubscribe from its email marketing.
For businesses, this means that you should check your own email marketing to ensure that:
- There is an unsubscribe link or button in the email;
- That the link is clear and easy for your recipients to find;
- You test the link frequently to make sure that it works;
- That once the link is clicked, there are minimal steps to unsubscribe. The more steps – the more likely it is to breach the law.
If you have concerns about your unsubscribing link, our experienced team at Taurus Legal Management can assist you. Please contact us on (03) 9481 2000 or info@tauruslawyers.com.au for more information.