Nokia fined in Australia for spam-texting its own customers
Nokia has been fined by Australian regulators for spamming its customers with text messages, Reuters reports. The company will have to pay AUS$55,000 for sending SMS marketing messages for its products and services alongside "tips" on how customers can best use their phones, but without offering a way to unsubscribe to the messages.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) does not prohibit companies from using unsolicited text messages, but according to the Spam Act of 2003, those messages must be accompanied by a way to contact the company and unsubscribe. While the usage tips Nokia sent contained some "factual information" and weren't mere marketing, some were promotions for things like mobile phone accessories.
Spam texts have proved to be a popular marketing method in Australia: ACMA reported a 370 percent increase in spam reports over the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Unlike the US, which only protects cell users from spam texts that arrive from a domain name (for example, an e-mail address) and not from all SMS spam, Australia frowns on spam sent directly to mobile numbers.
