ACMA penalises "missed call" marketing

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has issued DC Marketing Europe Limited with an Infringement Notice, carrying a penalty of $149,600, for extensive breaches of the Spam Act 2003.

ACMA penalised DC Marketing for 102 contraventions relating to missed call marketing activities in July and August 2006.

Missed call marketing involves the sending of short duration calls to mobile phones, thereby leaving a ‘missed call’ message on the phone.

Under this practice, when the mobile phone owner returned the missed call, they received marketing information from DC Marketing. Consumers had no way of knowing who the missed call was from before calling DC Marketing and so effectively paid to receive DC Marketing’s marketing messages. The missed call marketing messages sent out by DC Marketing were unsolicited, did not identify the sender and did not contain an unsubscribe facility, each of which is a breach of the Spam Act.