Commonwealth Bank of Australia said on Thursday it has paid an A$7.5 million ($5 million) fine for sending over 170 million marketing messages to customers without consent or a functional unsubscribe facility.
An investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found more than 170 million marketing messages were sent to Australians between November 2022 and April without providing an option to unsubscribe.
About 34.8 million of these messages were also sent to individuals who either had not given consent or had withdrawn their consent to receive them, ACMA said in a statement.
These actions led to breaches of certain provisions of the Spam Act, and the company has entered into an amended Enforceable Undertaking with the ACMA.
The Spam Act permits purely ‘service’ messages that are not commercial to be sent without consent or an unsubscribe facility.
This is the second major breach of the act from CBA, following a penalty of A$3.55 million in May 2023 for sending 65 million emails without a functional unsubscribe option.
In addition to the fine, ACMA has accepted an expanded three-year court-enforceable undertaking under which CBA has committed to a comprehensive independent review and implementation of improvements, the communications watchdog said.
“CBA is continuing to review and strengthen its systems, processes, and controls to support ongoing compliance with the Spam Act,” CBA said in a statement.
