National auto repair retailer mycar Tyre and Auto has paid a $1 million penalty after it sent 1.7 million emails and texts, which did not have a working unsubscribe button.
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said the company paid $1,047,000 for the text and emails it sent between January and August last year, which did not comply with spam laws.
The retailer sent 1.45 million messages without the unsubscribe button, 276,000 emails where people had to provide vehicle registration details to opt out of receiving further messages and almost 5000 messages to customers who had already asked to unsubscribe.
ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the inability to easily opt out of receiving mycar’s commercial messaging let to significant levels of consumer frustration.
“In one campaign mycar sent more than 1 million text messages that didn’t have an unsubscribe function,” O’Loughlin said.
“This is unacceptable, especially from a well-established national retailer.
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“The action taken by the ACMA on this matter, as well as our recent action against the Commonwealth Bank, sends a strong message that we will continue to hold businesses to account for spam breaches.”
She said ACMA would conduct an independent review of its e-marketing procedures to implement improvements.
“mycar must also provide regular compliance reports to the ACMA and train its staff on Australia’s spam laws.”
Marketing messages have required an unsubscribe message since 2003.
Businesses have paid $11 million in penalties for breaching spam and telemarketing laws in the past 18 months, including a penalty of over $3.55 million paid by the Commonwealth Bank in June.
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