Australian regulator Marketing company fines marketers over spam mobile calls
Rating: told ya
By Annie Turner
A marketing company has been fined almost USD150,000 for sending unwanted messages to mobile phone customers. DC Marketing Europe was fined by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) after being found guilty of making hundreds of spam marketing calls.
ACMA said the company had sent short duration calls to mobile phones which left a missed call message on the phone. Customers who rang the number to check on the call then received a marketing message.
ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said the penalty imposed on DC Marketing was the largest yet for breaches of the Spam Act. Mr Chapman said the calls were illegal because the missed call messages were unsolicited, did not identify the sender and did not contain an unsubscribe facility.
ACMA has announced plans to step up its anti-spam monitoring activities this year.
Just right too. It’s good that the Australian authorities are taking action against the cowboys to protect genuine marketers, but of course it’s hard to say exactly who they are. We predicted this and expect many more such actions by regulators around the world, including against mobile network operators for not doing more to protect their customers.
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2 Responses to “Australian regulator Marketing company fines marketers over spam mobile calls”
haha - it’s a great idea someone has to give DC Marketing *SOME* credit!
Comment made on July 25th, 2007 at 9:04 amyeah great idea, I think so too. As a matter of fact, ACMA is in a hurry to announce that obviously - do they have anything to prove?
DC would be stupid to pay the fine, as this is surely not covered my the Spam Act. A call is not a message - if it’s missed or not. Telemarketing is allowed in australia - so does everyone who calls a customer in the future in Australia have to pay thousands of bucks in fines if they hang up before the customer answers? That’s stupid. Obviously these guys found a loophole. I’d be surprised if they paid and don’t drag ACMA to Federal Court. ACMA will look extremely stupid there.
Comment made on August 5th, 2007 at 7:51 amLeave a Comment