Latitude pays $4m fine to ACMA for spam law breaches
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The news: Non-bank lender Latitude Finance has paid a $3.96 million fine to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for breaching spam laws more than 2.7 million times.
The numbers: An ACMA investigation found that Latitude sent more than 2.3 million marketing messages without accurate contact information, including 344,416 messages that did not have a working unsubscribe function.
The context: ACMA has accepted new court-enforceable undertakings from Latitude to appoint an independent consultant to further review its spam law compliance as well as to undertake regular and comprehensive reporting to ACMA.
The breach was identified through Latitude’s mandatory compliance reporting under a court-enforceable undertaking entered following a previous investigation.
ACMA has now taken enforcement action against Latitude on two occasions. Latitude paid a $1.55 million fine in 2022 for similar contraventions.
What they said: “Latitude is now a two‑time offender and it is disappointing that it let consumers down again,” ACMA member Samantha Yorke said.
“The spam laws have been in place for more than 20 years, and there is simply no excuse for ongoing non‑compliance, particularly after a prior enforcement action.”
The source: ACMA media release
