Car Company Fined for Sending SMS Spam

A Melbourne, Australia car company that text-messaged people after copying their mobile phone numbers from classified ads has been fined more than US$5,000 by the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) under anti-spam legislation.

carsales.com.au Ltd was issued with infringement notices for on-the-spot penalties of US$5,000 by the ACA for sending unsolicited commercial SMS messages in breach of the Spam Act 2003.

The ACA took action after the activities of carsales.com.au Ltd were reported by members of the public.

carsales.com.au Ltd told the ACA that it immediately stopped the practice after it received the infringement notices. The company claimed it had made an honest mistake and assured the ACA it would take all necessary steps to ensure that it complied with the Spam Act in future.

The company collected mobile phone numbers of people selling cars by copying them from classified ads in newspapers, including the Trading Post. It then sent text messages to those people advertising its services and car sales website.

"The ACA believes that those people selling cars published their telephone numbers in classified ads only so potential buyers could contact them," ACA Acting Chairman Dr Bob Horton said.

"They did not consent to receiving commercial SMS messages advertising a car sales website from a company they had no relationship with, and who collected their mobile phone numbers from the newspapers."

Dr Horton said that because the Spam Act is an opt-in law, the consent of a recipient may not be inferred merely because their mobile phone numbers or email addresses had been published. There were some limited exemptions for certain business-to-business communications.

He reminded all businesses that they are required to comply with the Spam Act, no matter how large or small their marketing activities. The Act requires that commercial electronic messages only be sent with consent, that they include accurate identifying information about the sender and that they include a functional unsubscribe facility.

Since the Spam Act came into force in April last year, the ACA has required 200 businesses to amend their practices to comply with the Act. Of those required to changes their practices, three were fined by the ACA for more substantial breaches, three were issued with formal warnings and one gave an enforceable undertaking."

Posted to the site on 6th April 2005