Spam Act 2003


The three key steps you should follow are:

1 Consent - Only send commercial electronic messages with the addressee’s consent - either express or inferred consent.

2 Identify - Include clear and accurate information about the person or business that is responsible for sending the commercial electronic message.

3 Unsubscribe - Ensure that a functional unsubscribe facility is included in all your commercial electronic messages. Deal with unsubscribe requests promptly.

MESSAGES COVERED BY THE ACT
The Spam Act covers commercial electronic messages that are sent using applications such as:
• email;
• short message service (SMS);
• multimedia message service (MMS); and
• instant messaging (iM).

STEP 1 - CONSENT

Your commercial messages should only be sent when you have consent.

This may be express consent from the person you wish to contact – a direct indication that it is
okay to send the message, or messages of that nature.

It is also possible to infer consent based on a business or other relationship with the person, and their conduct.

WHAT IS “EXPRESS CONSENT”?

You have received express consent from an addressee if that person has specifically requested messages from you. Examples of this include when:
• the addressee has subscribed to your electronic advertising mailing list;
• the addressee has deliberately ticked a box consenting to receive messages or advertisements
from you; or
• the addressee has specifically requested such material from you over the telephone.

WHAT IS “INFERRED CONSENT”?
Consent may be inferred when the person you wish to contact has not directly instructed you to send them a message, but it is still clear that there is a reasonable expectation that messages will be sent.

You may be able to reasonably infer consent after considering both the conduct of the addressee and their relationship with you. For example, if the addressee has an existing relationship with you and has previously provided their address then it would be reasonable to infer that consent has been provided.

Other examples of where consent may be inferred are:
• when purchasing goods or services an addressee has provided their electronic address in the
general expectation that there will be follow-up communications;

• when an addressee has provided their address with the understanding that it would be used in
day-to-day transactions (such as online banking or business), and may be used for additional
communications (for example notification of related services or products);

• online registration of a product or a warranty;