Outdoor Supacentre fined $300,000 for spamming without consent

The 4WD and camping store Outdoor Supacentre is the latest business to be found guilty of e-marketing to consumers without consent.

Outdoor Supacentre was found to have sent more than 80,000 marketing messages to consumers who never subscribed.

Outdoor Supacentre has been fined more than $302,500 after it sent tens of thousands of text messages to consumers who never consented to its marketing.

The company, which operates camping store 4WD Supacentre, is the latest to be fined by the Australian Communications Media Authority which has engaged in a national spam crackdown over the past 18 months.

During that period more than $12.5m in penalties have been enforced on a number of Australian and international businesses. Some of the most notable include Kmart, DoorDash, Ticketek, Uber and CBA.

Outdoor Supacentre was found to have sent 83,000 messages in breach of spam laws between December 2022 and May 2023. Of those 83,000 messages, more than 98 per cent of consumers had never consented to receiving messages and the remaining 2 per cent had already unsubscribed.

Almost one year before ACMA began its investigation it had sent five warnings to Outdoor Supacentre following consumer complains, ACMA member Samantha Yorke said.

“The alerts serve as a warning that businesses may have compliance issues with their e-marketing systems, so it’s disappointing that Outdoor Supacentre didn’t take the opportunity to adequately address the problems before we had to step in,” she said.

Australian businesses are required under the act to gain consent prior to opting consumers into receiving e-marketing. All messaging must include an unsubscribe function which must be actioned within five days.

Ms Yoke said it was crucial Australian businesses kept on track of their marketing departments and spam laws. “Any business that conducts e-marketing needs to follow the rules and the way you do that is by regularly reviewing your processes to ensure they remain within the law,” she said.

ACMA has accepted a three-year court-enforceable undertaking from Outdoor Supercentre which said it would appoint an independent consultant to review its compliance

“Outdoor Supacentre used a third-party provider for elements of its marketing processes, but companies can’t outsource their compliance obligations,” Ms Yorke said.