The Australian Communications and Media Authority found Uber breached Australian spam laws. Photo: 5./15 WEST/iStock.
Ride-share and food delivery company Uber Australia has paid a $412,500 infringement notice for sending more than two million emails in breach of Australian spam laws.
An Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found Uber sent the two million emails to customers without an option to unsubscribe, with more than one-quarter of the messages sent to customers who had previously unsubscribed. The emails were sent on a single day in January 2023 as part of an advertising campaign for an alcohol home delivery service.
The Spam Act requires businesses to have consent before they can send direct electronic marketing messages. Businesses must also provide the option to unsubscribe within messages.
ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin described the incident as an “avoidable error” and said it was unacceptable that a company like Uber that conducts high-volume marketing did not have robust systems in place to prevent it.
“Consumers are fed up with their wishes not being respected,” she said. “People rightly expect to have choice over who contacts them for marketing purposes.
“We are actively monitoring Uber’s compliance and will not hesitate to take stronger action if it doesn’t comply in the future.”
The ACMA investigation found the breaches occurred because Uber had mischaracterised the emails as non-commercial.
Ms O’Loughlin said the outcome of the investigation was a warning to all businesses conducting e-marketing to actively and regularly review their compliance.
“We are particularly concerned about direct marketing that involves gambling, alcohol and ‘buy-now, pay-later’ products and services that may lead to significant harm for people in vulnerable circumstances,” she said.
This action follows recent enforcement taken against other companies that have breached Australia’s spam laws, including Ticketek, DoorDash and CommBank.
Enforcement of the spam unsubscribe rules is one of the ACMA’s compliance priorities and over the last 18 months businesses have paid more than $11 million in spam and telemarketing breach penalties.
Consumers can make a complaint about spam online. For more information on how to reduce unwanted emails, texts and phone calls, visit the ACMA website.
