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The big four bank has been forced to pay up a second time after spamming more than 170 million messages to Australian consumers.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has been forced to pay a $7.5 million penalty after an Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found that the bank had spammed millions of its customers.
According to the ACMA, CBA sent more than 170 marketing messages to its customers without any way to unsubscribe between November 2022 and April 2024.
In addition, 34.8 million of those were sent to consumers who had either withdrawn their consent or never consented to receive marketing material in the first place.
Sadly, it’s not CBA’s first time under the spam spotlight – it paid a $65 million fine in 2023. Nerida O’Loughlin, ACMA chair, said the bank’s behaviour was “unacceptable”.
“The ACMA took action against CBA just last year for not delivering on their customers’ rights to unsubscribe from marketing messages. We have now had to take further action after this new investigation found that CBA had incorrectly classified millions of messages as non-commercial,” O’Loughlin said.
“Australians are sick and tired of this kind of spam intruding on their privacy, and it’s clear CBA did not have its systems in order.
“The rules are clear: if a message includes marketing content or direct links to marketing content, it is a commercial message and must give people the option to unsubscribe.
“We have seen several companies get this wrong, and businesses are on notice to check how they are classifying messages as commercial or non-commercial.”
CBA has also committed to a three-year undertaking to address its issues with compliance.
“We will continue to closely monitor compliance with its commitments and with the spam laws,” O’Loughlin said.
CBA made a net profit after tax of $9.8 billion for the 2024 financial year.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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