Kmart ordered to pay $1.3m fine by communications watchdog

The communications watchdog has hit Kmart with an eye-watering fine over an act toward customers that broke the law.

Kmart has paid a massive fine after it was found to have breached Australian spam laws in marketing emails to customers.

The discount retailer was ordered to pay a $1.3m for sending 212,471 messages in under a year to customers who had unsubscribed from email notifications.

Consumer complaints led the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to open an investigation about the emails sent between July 2022 and May 2023.

Kmart was fined for spamming customers with marketing emails. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dean Martin

The investigation found the breaches had occurred because of a “combination of technology, system and procedural failures”.

ACMA’s chair Nerida O’Loughlin says consumers are getting increasingly frustrated with big brands intruding on their privacy.

“When a customer decides to opt out of a marketing mailing list, businesses are obliged to fulfil that request. The rules have been in place for nearly 20 years and there is simply no excuse,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

“Kmart’s case is particularly concerning as it went on for such a significant period.”

ACMA had warned Kmart “on multiple occasions” there may be issues with its consumer marketing before it opened its investigation.

“Kmart was given more than enough notice it may have a compliance issue and it should have done more to address its problems before we had to step in and investigate,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

Ms O'Loughlin said there was "no excuse" for breaching spam laws.

On top of the fine, Kmart will have to appoint an independent consultant to review its compliance with spam rules.

Kmart will also have to report to ACMA about its communications.

The retailer is just the latest company to be hit with penalties over breaches of spam laws, including DoorDash, Ticketek and Uber.

Commonwealth Bank paid a record $3.55m fine in June after it was found to have breached the spam laws with more than 65 million emails to customers.