Mycar Tyre and Auto, a national vendor of auto repair services, has paid a $1 million fine after sending 1.7 million emails and SMS without a functional unsubscribe button.
The company allegedly paid $1,047,000 for texts and emails it delivered between January and August of last year but did not comply with spam regulations, according to Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
The business sent roughly 5000 communications to consumers who had previously requested to unsubscribe, 276,000 emails with a requirement for car registration information, and 1.45 million messages without an unsubscribe button.
The difficulty in easily opting out of getting advertising messages from mycar, according to ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin, has resulted in high levels of customer annoyance.
Mycar sent over a million SMS messages during one campaign without an unsubscribe option, according to O’Loughlin.
“This is unacceptable, particularly coming from a reputable national retailer.
“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 accountable for spam breaches.”
She declared that in order to make adjustments, ACMA would review its e-marketing practises independently.
“mycar must also train its staff on Australia’s spam laws and submit regular compliance reports to the ACMA.”
Since 2003, marketing mails must include an unsubscribe message.
In the last 18 months, businesses have spent $11 million on fines for breaking spam and telemarketing regulations, including a $3.55 million fine paid by the Commonwealth Bank in June.
