Leggings giant Lululemon has paid a $702,900 penalty after sending more than 370,000 emails with commercial content that did not contain a way to unsubscribe.
An Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found that between 1 December 2024 and 5 January 2025, Lululemon mischaracterised service messages, including delivery and order confirmation emails, that also had a clear marketing purpose.
Authority member Samantha Yorke said the spam rules are clear that if an electronic message contains any promotional or sales content, it is considered commercial regardless of whether the message has any other purpose.
Yorke said: “In this case Lululemon sent service emails such as a shipping updates that also contained sales material and direct links to promotions.
“This was an easily avoidable error that has led to hundreds of thousands of marketing emails being sent without a way for people to opt out.
“Businesses need to understand that marketing messages must have an unsubscribe option and the simplest way to comply is to keep transactional or service messages separate from sales content and links.
“This is the fifth enforcement action the ACMA has undertaken in the last 18 months against businesses that have incorrectly treated messages as non-commercial even though they contained or had links to clearly commercial material.
“The law is clear—providing the ability to opt-out is mandatory for marketing messages,” Yorke added.
In addition to the financial penalty, Lululemon has entered into a comprehensive court-enforceable undertaking committing it to an independent review of its spam rule compliance and to regularly report to the ACMA on the implementation of recommended improvements. The ACMA has published information to help businesses comply with the spam rules here.
Lululemon has long attracted controversy. Its founder Chip Wilson is no stranger to controversy and has often sparked outrage due to his social media posts. In 2024, its ‘Be Planet’ campaign faced public scrutiny and legal action for alleged greenwashing. In January of this year, the athleisurewear brand again drew controversy following the release of the ‘Get Low’ leggings. When customers complained the leggings were too see-through, the brand suggested customers were buying their clothing too small – this was not received well.
