No Junk (e)Mail: Spam Act Bites Back

This week the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), itself a little known regulatory authority, handed down the largest fine in its history - a whopping AUD $1 million - against a retail supermarket giant for unlawfully spamming more than 1.2 million customers via email.

The ACMA found that the retailer was in breach of Australia's anti-spam laws when it "sent marketing emails to consumers after they had unsubscribed from previous messages" between October 2018 and July 2019. The record-breaking fine was in part due to the retailer's failure to act even after the ACMA had warned it of potential Spam Act compliance issues, and multiple customer complaints.

The Spam Act