Ticketek Australia hit with $500,000 fine over spam law breach

Ticketek Australia has paid a fine of more than $500,000 after they were found to have breached Australian spam laws.

Almost 100,000 text and emails were sent to people last year without the consent of the recipients or to people who had previously unsubscribed, an Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found.

The entertainment company, which sells tickets to sporting and music events such as Taylor Swift's Eras Tour was issued an infringement notice of $515,040 over the messages.

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ACMA Chairperson Nerida O'Loughlin said it was "unacceptable" that Ticketek failed to comply with the spam laws, after they had earlier received a formal warning.

"Australians are fed up with these types of intrusions on their privacy and Ticketek has no excuses given it was on notice after our previous action," she said.

The communications watchdog found Ticketek had "mischaracterised" some emails as being non-commercial, due to containing event information for ticket holders and therefore considered them exempt from spam rules.

ACMA also found the emails contained links to Ticketek's website and social media pages, which contained advertising material and promotions for upcoming events.

"Even if the purpose of a message is to provide factual information to customers, if it also includes marketing content, or links to marketing content, it can only be sent with consent," O'Loughlin said.

"It is also incredibly frustrating for people to take the time to unsubscribe only for those requests to not be actioned. Businesses must have working systems in place to comply with consumer choice and consent.

"We have seen several companies with similar failures over the last 12 months. All businesses conducting e-marketing should be actively and regularly reviewing whether their marketing complies with the law."

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A Ticketek Spokesperson told 9news.com.au that the company regretted any impact customers had experienced by receiving those messages.

"Ticketek takes its obligations under the Spam Act very seriously and dedicates significant resources to ensuring compliance," the spokesperson said.

"We recognise however that no system is perfect, and we have been, and will continue to, work constructively with the ACMA in relation to the issues identified.

The company said they were surprised to learn that ACMA had stated customer consent was required to send messages that had the purpose of notifying customers of important event information, if those messages contain promotional material.

"We anticipate that many other businesses may not be aware that in ACMA's view these inclusions fall foul of the Act," the spokesperson said.

"We will continue to review our systems, procedures, and training relating to our compliance with the Spam Act to ensure that this does not happen again."

Ticketek will enter three-year court-enforceable with ACMA, which will require them to appoint an independent consultant to review its compliance with spam rules.

The company must also report to the ACMA while the undertaking is in force.

Multiple companies have previously been fined over spam laws, including; DoorDash, CommBank and MyCar Tyre & Auto.