Steve Creedy
VIRGIN Blue has been fined $110,000 by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
And it will overhaul its email marketing after it continues to spam customers who try to cancel subscriptions to its mailing list.
The airline contravened the Spam Act when it continued to send about 10,000 messages despite multiple attempts by the recipients to unsubscribe. The airline claimed the messages were a mistake, but the ACMA said Virgin should have identified the problem sooner than it did.
The enforceable undertaking commits Virgin to an overhaul and independent assessment of its electronic marketing practices. Virgin will also be required to train staff, establish a complaints policy in line with Australian standards and audit 10 per cent of its email marketing campaigns each month for a year.
Authority chairman Chris Chapman said companies needed to regularly test the unsubscribe function in their messages.
A Virgin spokeswoman said the airline had improved its practices to make sure the problem did not happen again.
Source: www.theaustralian.com.au
