Coca-Cola has been issued with a formal warning over a spam marketing campaign but it was spared a monetary penalty, unlike the three other companies involved, which included Vodafone.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has accepted enforceable undertakings from three companies — Vodafone, New Dialogue and Big Mobile — over alleged breaches of the Spam Act.
In October last year, 100,000 unsolicited SMS messages promoting certain Coca-Cola products were sent to mobile phones on two separate occasions. "Take a hint from your PC and reboot," the message read. "You'll work faster. Reclaim your lunch hour with a friend. Escape with a Coca-Cola lunch break."
But the messages did not contain any information about how a recipient could unsubscribe from receiving further messages, or contain information about how the recipient could contact Coca-Cola South Pacific, the authorising organisation.
ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said there was "no excuse" for the companies to fall short in their obligations under the Spam Act in terms of SMS marketing campaigns.
The communications watchdog has accepted an enforceable undertaking from Vodafone, which includes a financial component of $110,000, in response to three investigations into alleged breaches of the Spam Act, including the marketing campaign of the soft drink giant.
Enforceable undertakings were also accepted from media agency New Dialogue and content supplier Big Mobile in relation to the spam campaign. New Dialogue has paid an amount of $22,000, while Big Mobile has undertaken to pay compensation to each recipient of any SMS message that breached the Spam Act.
Chapman said all three companies were by their very nature heavily involved in SMS marketing campaigns. "The ACMA nonetheless notes their commitment to the process of achieving compliance with the requirements of the Spam Act," he said.
"I would keenly hope that their actions and responses provide a sobering reminder to all of the players in the SMS marketing industry about the importance of compliance."
The communications watchdog issued Coca-Cola South Pacific with a formal warning for causing commercial electronic messages to be sent without an unsubscribe facility and not providing contact information, as required under the Spam Act.
Formal warnings are used by ACMA to indicate concerns about alleged contravention and allow for the business or individual to take compliance action to prevent any future contravention. The legislation also sets out penalties of up to $1.1 million a day for repeat corporate offenders.
