Vodafone Hutchison Australia Warned for Breaching Anti-Spam Laws

­Vodafone Hutchison Australia has been censured by the telecoms regulator after it supported an SMS marketing campaign that breached the country's anti-spam laws.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority accepted enforceable undertakings from three companies - Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), New Dialogue, Big Mobile - and issued a formal warning to Coca-Cola South Pacific after investigating alleged breaches of the Spam Act 2003 arising from a marketing campaign that promoted certain Coca-Cola products through SMS.

'The ACMA considers that well resourced companies should be compliance leaders,' said Chris Chapman, Chairman of the ACMA. 'There is no excuse for them to fall short in their obligations under the Spam Act for SMS marketing campaigns.'

The ACMA has accepted an enforceable undertaking from VHA, which includes a financial component of AU$110,000. The undertaking was offered by VHA in response to three ACMA investigations into alleged breaches of the Spam Act (including the Coca-Cola marketing campaign). VHA has undertaken to appoint an independent auditor to monitor Spam Act compliance and to make recommendations to improve Spam Act compliance, to be implemented by VHA. VHA has also undertaken to provide Spam Act training for all employees.

The ACMA has also accepted enforceable undertakings from media agency New Dialogue and content aggregator Big Mobile in relation to the Coca-Cola marketing campaign. In accordance with its enforceable undertaking, New Dialogue has paid an amount of AU$22,000. Big Mobile has undertaken to pay compensation to each recipient of any SMS message that breaches the Spam Act during the term of the enforceable undertaking (12 months).

'VHA, New Dialogue and Big Mobile are businesses which by their very nature are heavily involved in SMS marketing campaigns. The ACMA nonetheless notes their commitment to the process of achieving compliance with the requirements of the Spam Act. I would keenly hope that their actions and responses provide a sobering reminder to all of the players in the SMS marketing industry about the importance of compliance.'

Also as a result of the ACMA's findings, a formal warning has been issued to Coca-Cola for causing commercial electronic messages to be sent without an unsubscribe facility and not providing contact information, as required under the Spam Act.

Posted to the site on 10th November 2009