Guide To Australia's Telemarketing And Spam Call Laws

Australia's telemarketing law is similar to anti-spam regulations you'll encounter in other Western countries, but there are still key distinctions that every advertiser must follow. While countries like the United States have relatively lax regulations regarding marketing communications, Australian consumer protection laws are stricter. Find out how CallRail can prevent spam calls from reaching your business. Australia has a set of national advertising regulations, known as the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), which follow the precedent set by similar legislation in other countries. The ACL covers topics such as misleading advertising, intellectual property and price regulation. However, Australia also has its own marketing laws relating to telemarketing and spam calls, which were first set out in the National Spam Act 2003. Any domestic or international advertiser who wishes to compete in Australia and use callers as part of its marketing strategy must stay abreast of these regulations, or risk fines of up to A$1.7 million per day and the potential loss of their business license. Worse still, violations of Australia's anti-spam law could result in the seizure of hardware used for the offending marketing, as well as potential civil liability. Let's go over some of the basics of Australian telemarketing law to ensure your business always stays above the edges in the Land Down Under. Personal vs commercial: an essential distinction One of the most important legal distinctions in Australian marketing law is the difference between personal and business telephone calls, as set out in the Spam Act 2003. It is essential for any Australian marketer who uses the phone calls in its marketing to do its best to follow these rules, so be sure to impress upon your team the importance of following these rules. Generally, a personal communication is any type of non-commercial exchange between individuals for non-commercial purposes.

For example, picking up the phone to Employee Email Database call your great-aunt Sheila for her Anzac cookie recipe is, without a doubt, a personal call. A commercial call or communication, therefore, is a telephone call that does one of the following:Offers, advertises or promotes the supply of goods, services, land or business or investment opportunities Advertises or promotes a provider of goods, services, land or a provider of business or investment opportunitiesHelps a person obtain property, a business advantage, or other gain from another person If a message or phone call meets any of the above requirements, it is considered a commercial communication and is therefore subject to Australian marketing regulations. Chances are this will include your next ad campaign! The Spam Act 2003 however makes exceptions for non-personal communications which can be sent to someone without following these regulations. There is a set of limited exemptions for marketing communications, as well as exemptions for messages from government organizations, registered charities, educational institutions and political parties. Comply with the Do Not Call Registry Like most other Western countries, Australia maintains a national “Do Not Call” list. This is a free service provided by the government that any citizen can use - after entering their telephone or fax number into this national register, they will no longer receive unsolicited calls from most traders. Once a person or organization applies to have their number listed on the Australian Do Not Call Registry, telemarketers and fax marketers have 30 days to stop contacting them. Merchants who violate this law not only face heavy fines and penalties from Australian anti-spam regulators, they may also be subject to civil action in court, depending on the extent of their violations. To help businesses stay compliant, the Australian government offers a free 'wash' service.

With the help of this program, marketers can cross-reference their contact database with numbers listed in the Do Not Call Registry (similar to a "suppression list" for an email marketing database). -mail) and remove any incorrect or invalid numbers. Pruning the bad numbers and cleaning up your contact database may take a little extra work on your part, but the effort is well worth the end results: a better, more engaged contact database. The Importance of Express and Inferred Consent Much like the difference between commercial and personal communications, there is also a distinction between the ways in which a recipient can consent to receiving marketing materials from you. Australia's marketing consent laws cover both phone calls and email marketing. It is therefore essential to ensure that all your marketing efforts follow these rules. Express consent is when someone provides you with a phone number or email address and indicates that they want to receive marketing messages from you. Under Australian law, express consent can take many forms: filling out a subscription or registration form, providing a business card, or providing contact information over the phone all meet the rules for express consent. Consent laws require marketers to maintain their contact database with information detailing how their contacts signed up or consented to receive marketing messages.