Discount airline Tiger Airways has been hit with a $110,000 fine by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for breaches of the Spam Act.
ACMA levied the fine after an investigation revealed that Tiger had not removed customers from its email marketing list despite unsubscribe requests.
The Spam Act requires that commercial marketing emails must contain a functional unsubscribe facility. The fine is a wake-up call for business to test their email unsubscribe function regularly, said ACMA deputy chairperson Richard Bean.
In the 2011-12 financial year, ACMA reported a sixfold increase in spam reports to the organisation, and issued 4200 informal warnings, seven formal warnings and three court-enforceable undertakings related to spamming by Australian organisations.
Australia is responsible of 0.26 per cent of spam worldwide, according to security vendor Sophos.