Ticketek Australia has been fined after it was found to breach Australian spam laws.
The ticket agency was fined $515,040 over nearly 100,000 texts and emails that were sent to recipients without consent or to those who had unsubscribed.
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An Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found 41,00 marketing texts and emails were sent to those with consent, and 57,000 to those who had previously unsubscribed from communications.
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said it was unacceptable that Ticketek failed to comply with spam laws again after being issued a formal warning for breaching the Spam Act in 2019.
Ticketek mischaracterised some emails as being non-commercial because they contained event information for ticket holders, therefore considering them exempt from spam rules.
The ACMA found the emails also included links to Ticketek’s website and social media pages, which contained advertising material and promotions for upcoming events.
“Even if the purpose of a message is to provide factual information to customers, if it also includes marketing content, or links to marketing content, it can only be sent with consent,” Ms O’Loughlin said in an ACMA media release.
“It is also incredibly frustrating for people to take the time to unsubscribe only for those requests to not be actioned. Businesses must have working systems in place to comply with consumer choice and consent.
“We have seen several companies with similar failures over the last 12 months. All businesses conducting e-marketing should be actively and regularly reviewing whether their marketing complies with the law.”
Consumers can make a complaint about spam here. For more information on how to reduce unwanted emails, texts, and phone calls, visit the ACMA website.