Food delivery company DoorDash has been fined more than $2 million for sending more than a million texts and emails ruled to be spam.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority said complaints from customers and would-be delivery drivers sparked an investigation into the American company.
The telecommunications regulator found DoorDash sent more than 566,000 promotional emails to customers that had unsubscribed and 515,000 texts to people who’d looked into becoming delivery drivers.
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said businesses should know better.
“Australians find it incredibly frustrating when they receive marketing messages from businesses like DoorDash after they have taken the time to unsubscribe,” she said.
The texts to prospective drivers didn’t include any way to unsubscribe, which is a breach of the Spam Act.
ACMA found DoorDash had mischaracterised them as being “solely factual” and outside the spam rules but they actually included commercial aspects such as offers and incentives.
“When messages include this kind of content they are considered commercial under spam rules and must include an unsubscribe facility,” Ms O’Loughlin said.
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“DoorDash is a large business conducting high-volume marketing so there is no excuse for non-compliance.
“This is a further warning to all businesses that engage in email and SMS marketing that now is the time to review your spam compliance.”
DoorDash must also appoint an independent consultant to review and improve its spam compliance, with regular reports to ACMA.
DoorDash’s $2,011,320 fine works out to roughly $1.86 per text or email, which is a harsher rate than those other companies but not necessarily directly comparable.
It’s not the only food delivery app to run into legal trouble.
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