Optus hit with biggest ever spam fine from ACMA after ignoring customer calls to unsubscribe
Tech giant Optus has been slapped with the country’s largest ever penalty for breaching spam laws after infuriating customers.
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Australia’s second largest telco has today been hit by the largest penalty for spamming customers, with Optus forced to pay more than half a million dollars for ignoring customers’ attempts to stop unwanted emails and text messages.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority issued the unprecedented, $504,000 spam penalty for marketing messages Optus sent between June and December in 2018.
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the Singapore-based operator sent marketing emails and text messages to consumers even after they had attempted to unsubscribe, and sent billing notices with no facility to stop them.
“This is the second largest infringement notice that has ever been paid to the ACMA, and the largest paid for spamming,” Ms O’Loughlin said.
“It reflects the seriousness of breaches made by Optus and its failure to honour its customers’ wishes to unsubscribe, in some cases on multiple occasions.
“Australians find spam infuriating and as a regulator it is something we are actively cracking down on.”
As part of the penalty, Optus has agreed to hire an independent consultant to review “systems, policies and procedures” to ensure compliance with the Spam Act.
Optus regulatory and public affairs vice-president Andrew Sheridan said the company acknowledged it had done the wrong thing and apologised “to customers who received messages in error”.
“We have committed to putting in place enhanced practices and systems to tighten the management of our marketing communications and will continue to work constructively with the ACMA on this matter,” he said in a statement.
ACMA has issued penalties totalling $1,127,700 for breaches of anti-spam laws over the last 18 months.
However, it is just the latest large fine for Optus. The telco was slugged $6.4 million in December last year for misleading consumers about the National Broadband Network, sending email and text messages to customers warning that their home broadband services would be “disconnected very soon” even though most were not facing imminent disconnections.
Originally published as Optus hit with biggest ever spam fine from ACMA after ignoring customer calls to unsubscribe