Cybersecurity Policy Report, Telstra Pays Fine to Settle Australian Complaint Over Spam Texts, (Mar 6, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Telstra
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has imposed a penalty of $626,000 Australian (US$397,000) on Telstra Group Ltd. over violations of Australia’s spam laws, the ACMA announced today.
Telstra sent nearly 10.5 million text messages that violated Australian law requiring businesses to enable consumers to unsubscribe from commercial messages without having to log into accounts or provide personal information, the ACMA said in a news release.
ACMA’s investigation found that, over a 21-month period from 2022 to 2024, Telstra sent 10,433,812 texts with unsubscribe arrangements in breach of the law, including more than 10.3 million that required recipients to provide personal information to opt out.
A further 43,228 texts were sent between October 2022 and July 2023 to customers of Telstra’s “Belong” brand who either had not consented or had withdrawn their consent to receive the messages, the ACMA said. Telstra self-reported these violations to the ACMA and implemented fixes to most of the underlying causes before the ACMA began its investigation.
In addition to the fine, Telstra agreed to make improvements in its anti-spam compliance program and report regularly to the ACMA.
“The spam consent rules have been in force for over 20 years and Telstra, as a mature and established company, has no excuse for this type of non-compliance,” said Samantha Yorke, an ACMA member. “Consumers must be able to unsubscribe without giving businesses more personal information than is required.”
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