The devil really is in the detail when it comes to spam

On paper, complying with the rules of the Spam Act seems straightforward. If you want to send marketing emails or messages to your customers, the rules require you to:

1.    Get consent
2.    Identify the sender
3.    Include contact details
4.    Provide an opt out

They’re short, sharp, punchy and just about small enough to fit onto a tattoo.

And yet investigations by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), Australia’s regulator of all things communications- and media services-related, are jarring in their frequency and severity, and serve to remind us that there continues to be a chasm in understanding, interpreting and applying these ‘simple’ rules. Sometimes, the devil really is in the detail.

Australian gambling company penalised $4 million for spam violations

In June 2025, one of Australia’s largest gambling companies was slapped with a whopping $4 million penalty for, among other things, sending more than 3,000 SMS and WhatsApp messages to customers of its VIP program, between 1 February and 1 May 2024, where the messages did not contain adequate sender information.
In addition to the $4 million financial penalty, the company entered into a 3-year court-enforceable undertaking, which included an independent review of its direct marketing systems, making improvements, running quarterly audits of its VIP direct marketing, training staff and reporting to the ACMA regularly.

The ACMA investigation found that the SMS and WhatsApp messages contravened subsection 17(1) of the Spam Act, which requires commercial electronic messages to clearly and accurately identify the sender and contain accurate information about how the recipient can contact the sender. This information must remain valid for at least 30 days after the message is sent.

Non-compliance with sender identification obligations

So, how did the gambling company fail to meet its sender identity obligations from the Spam Act, in this instance? The ACMA’s investigation found that the SMS and WhatsApp messages to customers of its VIP program did not identify the company as the sender of the message and/or did not include accurate information about how the customer could contact the company.

The company contested the findings, stating that customers could, in fact, identify and contact the account manager sending the messages, if they saved the account managers’ names and phone numbers into their phones. 

The ACMA did not agree with the company’s positioning, arguing that while this could have been a practical reality in some cases, the framing was speculative, and the Spam Act did not contemplate such arrangements.

The ACMA’s expectations – what marketers need to know

So, how can companies comply with their sender identification obligations under the Spam Act, particularly when sending SMS and WhatsApp marketing messages to their customers? The ACMA has provided clarification.

Remember to include clear and accurate information about your organisation as well as information about how to contact your organisation. Further, when sending commercial text messages:

1. Using an alphanumeric sender ID (i.e. a word) on a text message may meet the requirement to identify the sender, however these types of sender IDs generally cannot receive return contact, and so would likely not, on their own, meet the requirement to include contact information. 
2. Conversely, an SMS with a phone number as the sender ID would likely meet the contact information requirement, if the number can receive return contact and is monitored. However, it may not clearly identify the sender. 

Remember that both obligations - (i) to clearly and accurately identify the sender and (ii) to include accurate information about how to contact the sender - must be met, when sending commercial electronic messages via SMS.
 

Need to know more?
To help meet your legislative obligations when sending digital marketing to customers, be sure to check out our Spam Act Toolkit available exclusively to members. We also have a dedicated online short course dedicated to Spam Law and Electronic Communications which is available to everyone and discounted for ADMA members.