Spam bandit cops $1m fine for sending 2 million unwanted messages
Australia’s media watchdog has dished out a hefty fine after a prominent mechanic breached spam laws nearly two million times.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is the major reason most teens go online. (file image)
Mycar Tyre and Auto sent 1.45 million texts and emails without an unsubscribe option that worked, and another 276,000 emails where users had to give vehicle registration details to stop receiving further messages.
Both are breaches of Australia’s spam rules, with the Australian Communications and Media Authority hitting mycar with a $1,047,000 fine for actions between January and August 2022.
They also sent 5000 messages to people who’d already asked to unsubscribe from their marketing.
“In one campaign mycar sent more than one million text messages that didn’t have an unsubscribe function … this is unacceptable, especially from a well-established national retailer,” ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said.
“The action taken by the ACMA on this matter, as well as our recent action against the Commonwealth Bank, sends a strong message that we will continue to hold businesses to account for spam breaches.”
ACMA fined Commonwealth Bank $3.6 million earlier this month for similar breaches.
Mycar is now on a court-enforceable, three-year undertaking to review its marketing and make improvements, and must give regular compliance updates to ACMA.
