The Ad company comes under fire from ACMA

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has issued a formal warning to The Ad Company Pty Ltd for alleged breaches of the Spam Act 2003.

The warning comes as a result of, the Company sending commercial electronic messages by e-mail without the consent of the recipient.

It is also alleged that a quantity of the messages did not have an unsubscribe link or information on how to unsubscribe within the messages.

However ACMA said that the new owners of The Ad Company have co-operated with ACMA’s investigation and have indicated a willingness to alter the company’s advertising methods to comply with legislation.

Chris Chapman, chairman at ACMA said commercial electronic messages can be sent by email, SMS, MMS and instant messaging.

Under the Spam Act, potential penalties of up to $1.1 million per day may be imposed by the Federal Court for repeat offenders.

"All e-marketers need to be aware of their obligations under the Spam Act," he said.

“Equally, consumers should be aware that if they receive unsolicited commercial messages by email, SMS, MMS and instant messaging that they can make a complaint to ACMA under the Spam Act.”