Kogan racks up another $310,800 in fines for breaching spam laws

This is the second time in 2 months the business has been fined.

Online marketplace Kogan has been fined $310,800 by the Australian Communications and Media Authority after breaching Australian spam laws.

Kogan sent over 42 million marketing emails to its customers that didn’t include the ability to easily unsubscribe, instead requiring a customer to set a password or log into a Kogan account before they could make the choice – a breach of the Spam Act.

“Kogan’s breaches have affected millions of consumers,” said ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin.

“The ACMA received complaints from a number of recipients of Kogan’s email expressing their frustration and concern with Kogan’s practices [and] ACMA sent Kogan multiple compliance alerts before commencing this investigation.”

Kogan has now accepted a three-year court-enforceable undertaking, which will require it to properly train its staff for sending marketing messages, appoint an independent consultant to review its systems and regularly report back to ACMA on actions made on customer complaints.

According the authority, businesses have paid over $2.1 million for infringement notices in the last 18 months, and repeat offenders can face penalties of up to $1.11 million a day.

The online marketplace is no stranger to fines, having been forced to pay $350,000 by the ACCC in December after an investigation found it had made false and misleading marketing claims about a tax time promotion in 2018.

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