Recently rebranded media agency Tongue, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Coca-Cola, and mobile firm Big Mobile, have all been reprimanded by the media regulator for sending spam messages, including some financial penalties.
The penalties from the Australian Communications and Media Authority all relate to an SMS campaign for Coca-Cola products.
Tongue, the agency recently formed from previous digital incarnation New Dialogue, has paid an amount of $22,000 for its breach of the Spam Act, in relation to a mobile campaign it arranged for Coca-Cola. Big Mobile, which also worked on the campaign, has agreed to pay compensation to each recipient of any SMS message that breaches the Spam Act during a 12 month period it has undertaken.
ACMA has accepted an “enforceable undertaking” from VHA, which includes a payment of $110,000. The action by ACMA followed three investigations into alleged breaches of the Spam Act, including the Coca-Cola marketing campaign.
Coca-Cola has been formally warned for its role in causing SMS messages to be sent without an unsubscribe facility and not providing contact information, as required under the Spam Act.
Chris Chapman, chairman of ACMA, said: “The ACMA considers that well resourced companies should be compliance leaders. There is no excuse for them to fall short in their obligations under the Spam Act for SMS marketing campaigns.”
He added: “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.”
