Mobile phone marketing company, DC Marketing Europe Limited (DCME), has received a record fine of $149,600 for breaches of the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) (the Act).
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) issued infringement notices for 102 breaches of the Act in July and August 2006.
It was alleged that
- DCME left “missed call” numbers on a number of mobile phones;
- when the recipients returned the missed call, they received marketing information from DCME;
- and consumers therefore had no way of knowing that the message was from a marketing company and were effectively paying (through call costs) to listen to unsolicited marketing material.
In general, the Act provides that “commercial electronic messages” (including emails, SMS, MMS and other instant messages) must have the following features:
- Consent – it must not be sent without the recipient’s consent;
- Identity – it must contain accurate information about the sender; and
- Unsubscribe – it must contain a functional “unsubscribe” facility to allow the recipient to opt-out of receiving messages from that source in future.
The ACMA alleged that the “missed call” messages from DCME had none of these features.
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