Melon Corporate Blog

Golden slap on the wrist.

Dain Saxon (Digital Producer) - Feb 09, 2010

Are huge fines to legitimate companies fair, or are they just being made an example of? On the 1st February, CommSec, the brokerage arm of the Commonwealth Bank, was handed down an AUD $55,000 fine for breaching the SpamAct compliance laws. The erroneous emails failed to include an unsubscribe link. There were three complaints from an estimated 6,000,000 emails sent over 12 months. So a 0.0000005 complaint rate. The ACMA investigated and then handed out the fine. The question here is whether the amount was justified (CommSec has already agreed to a review of their internal mail practice) or whether it was an overly large sum to make an example of the bank because it is so difficult to catch and fine REAL spammers. The SpamAct exists to prevent illegitimate, unrequested and unwanted mail from being delivered to us. Yes, the Commonwealth Bank failed to comply with the law by not including an unsubscribe function - but did it warrant such a slap on the wrist? Original article: http://www.digital-media.net.au/article/CommSec-latest-to-fall-foul-of-SPAM-laws/510347.aspx

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