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Virgin fined $22,000 for SPAM

Virgin fined $22,000 for SPAM

A Marketing article written by Mike Whitehouse

ACMA has accepted an enforceable undertaking offered by Virgin Mobile, following an investigation into alleged breaches of the Spam Act.

As a result, Virgin Mobile must establish new training programs, quality assurance processes and auditing procedures after an investigation into emails it sent opt-out customers, and has agreed to pay $22,000.

Virgin Mobile customers who had previously 'opted out' of receiving marketing emails were sent an email asking if they wanted to change their mind after reviewing some attached promotions.

The Virgin Mobile emailed to customers in July 2009 included:

  • "When you joined us you asked not to receive any promotional material."
  • "We totally respect that decision and you can remain promo-free as long as you like."
  • "To make sure you're still certain about this choice, we just wanted to quickly show you some examples of recent offers that we've sent to customers..."

The ACMA found the messages to be commercial electronic messages that were sent without consent of the client and did not include an unsubscribe facility which contravenes the Spam Act. This states that commercial electronic messages cannot be sent without a recipient's prior consent.

Aspedia provides a spam-compliant eNewsletter system called MailServant which provides opt-in and opt-out management, list dedupping, and other features required under the Spam Act.