Bank fined $1.55m for breaching spamming laws more than 3 million times

The finance company broke scam laws after sending more than three million emails and text messages to customers.

An Australian finance company has copped a whopping $1.55 million fine for breaching spamming laws more than three million times.

Latitude Finance Australia was dealt the hefty penalty after the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found the company mischaracterised commercial emails and texts to customers as ‘information only’ messages.

Instead the emails and texts promoted a range of products from the finance firm including credit cards and did not give customers the ability to unsubscribe.

The three million commercial emails and text messages were sent between June 2021 and March 2022 and these messages continued to be sent to customers who had already attempted to unsubscribe.

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Customers attempted to unsubscribe but still received the messages. Picture: Supplied

Companies must accurately characterise their messages and respect the choices made by their customers as to whether they want to receive them, said ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said

“Companies cannot promote their products and services to customers under the guise of simply providing them with factual information. Customers must be able to withdraw their consent and stop receiving commercial messages. That choice must be actioned within five days,” she said.

“Latitude failed on both these counts. It also did not make changes to its practices even after we alerted it several times that it may have compliance problems.

“These rules have been in force since 2003, so there is simply no excuse for Latitude – or any other business – to not have compliant practices.”

Latitude had also agreed to a three-year court-enforceable undertaking that requires it to appoint an independent consultant to review its compliance with spam rules and to make improvements where needed.

The corporate watchdog has seen businesses pay out almost $5 million in penalties in the past 18 months for spam breaches. Picture: Getty Images

Ms O’Loughlin said the communications watchdog would be focusing on unwanted communication to customers from companies in the next year.

Over the past 18 months, businesses have paid almost $5 million in penalties for breaching spam and telemarketing laws.

The ACMA has also accepted 12 court-enforceable undertakings and given five formal warnings.