Latitude Financial Services has been fined A$1.55 million for more than three million breaches of the Spam Act and it has given a three-year court enforceable undertaking to review its compliance with spam rules. 

The Australian Communications and Media Authority issued a statement on Friday, saying Latitude mis-characterised commercial emails and texts sent to customers as “information only” messages, when in fact the messages promoted the company’s products.

Due to the mischaracterisation Latitude did not include an unsubscribe option in the emails and texts. Messages continued to be sent to customers who had already attempted to unsubscribe.

The three million emails and texts were sent between June 2021 and March this year.

ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said in a statement: “Companies cannot promote their products and services to customers under the guise of simply providing them with factual information. Customers must be able to withdraw their consent and stop receiving commercial messages.

“Latitude failed on both these counts. It also did not make changes to its practices even after we alerted it several times that it may have compliance problems.”

“These rules have been in place since 2003, so there is simply no excuse for Latitude, or any other business, to not have compliant practices,” O’Loughlin said.

Under the terms of the enforceable undertaking, Latitude will appoint an independent consultant to review its compliance with the spam rules and make improvements where needed. Latitude must train staff and report back to ACMA.