Your responsibilities under Australian Law


If you send or have someone else send out your marketing emails or messages, you need to know about spam laws In Australia.
The Spam Act 2003 and the Spam Regulations are set out to help you avoid sending Spam emails messages.


How to comply

If you plan to send marketing messages or emails, you must first have permission from the person who will receive them.
Even if someone else is sending out your marketing messages for you, you must still have permission from each person who will receive your messages.
After you get permission, you must ensure your message:
 
  1.     identifies you as the sender
  2.     contains your contact details
  3.     makes it easy to unsubscribe
 

Get permission

There are two types of permission:

  • express
  • inferred

Express permission

A person who gives express permission knows and accepts that they will receive marketing emails or messages from you.
People can give express permission by one of the following:

  • filling in a form
  • ticking a box on a website
  • over the phone
  • face to face

You cannot send an electronic message to ask for permission, because this is a marketing message.
Keep a record when a person gives express permission, including who gave the permission and how.
Under the Act, it's up to you to prove that you got a person's permission.

Inferred permission

You may infer that you have permission to send marketing messages if the recipient has knowingly and directly given their address and it is reasonable to believe they would expect to receive marketing from your business. This is usually when a person has a provable, ongoing relationship with your business, and the marketing is directly related to that relationship.
For example, if someone has subscribed to a service, has an account or is a member, and the marketing is relevant to the relationship.
It does not cover sending messages after someone has just bought something from your business.


Make it easy to unsubscribe

You need to make it easy for people to unsubscribe from your mailing lists.
Under the Spam Act, every commercial message must contain an 'unsubscribe' option that:

 
  • presents unsubscribe instructions clearly
  • honours a request to unsubscribe within 5 working days
  • does not require the payment of a fee
  • is functional for at least 30 days after you sent the message

Categories: Informations