SPAM Act 2003

Spam is the common term for electronic 'junk mail' - unwanted commercial electronic messages.

Australia’s anti-spam legislation was introduced in 2003 in response to concerns about the impact of spam on the effectiveness of electronic communication and the costs imposed on end-users.

The Spam Act 2003 prohibits the sending of spam, which is identified as a commercial electronic message sent without the consent of the addressee via email, short message service (SMS), multimedia message service (MMS) or instant messaging.

The requirements under the Spam Act apply to all commercial electronic messages, including both bulk and individual messages. The legislation applies equally to both single and bulk email deliveries that are commercial in nature. If you use email as part of your business activities it is wise to familiarise yourself with the Act.

When reviewing your business practices, and the content of your commercial messages to ensure you comply with the Spam Act, you should consider the following three steps:

STEP 1 - CONSENT

Your commercial messages should only be sent when you have consent.
This may be express consent from the person you wish to contact – a direct indication that it is okay to send the message, or messages of that nature.
It is also possible to infer consent based on a business or other relationship with the person, and their conduct.

STEP 2 - IDENTIFY

Your commercial messages should always contain clear and accurate identification of who is responsible for sending the message, and how they can be contacted.
It is important for people to know who is contacting them, and how they can get in touch in return. This will generally be the organisation that authorises the sending of the message, rather than the name of the person who actually hits the “send” button.
Identification details that are provided must be reasonably likely to be accurate for a period of 30 days after the message is sent. This would be a consideration if the business was about to change address.

STEP 3 - UNSUBSCRIBE

Your commercial messages should contain an unsubscribe facility, allowing people to indicate that such messages should not be sent to them in future. All commercial electronic messages must contain a functional unsubscribe facility, allowing people to opt-out from receiving future messages. Such a request must be honoured.

The Spam Act specifies that the person’s consent has been withdrawn within five working days from the date that the unsubscribe request was sent (in the case of electronic unsubscribe messages) or delivered (in the case of unsubscribe messages sent by post or other means).

Similar to the identification of the message’s sender (step 2, above) the unsubscribe facility must be reasonably likely to remain accurate and functional for a 30 day period.

CONTACT LISTS?

Commercial electronic messages must only be sent with consent. It does not matter when the contact list was gathered, or how it has been used. You should be able to look at the addresses on your contact list and be certain that you have either express or inferred consent to contact each addressee.

When you are satisfied that your existing list of addressees have consented to receiving commercial electronic messages, you should ensure that the collection of future addresses is also based on consent. To do so, you may wish to consider amending any forms, letters or even invoices to seek consent from a person to send them commercial electronic messages.

For further information on the Spam act go to this link:
www.acma.gov.au/acmainterwr/consumer_info/frequently_asked_questions/spam_business_practical_guide.pdf