Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) has paid a record $3.55 million fine for sending 65 million emails that breached Australian spam laws.
The penalty is the largest ever imposed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for breaking unsolicited email laws.
The authority found the bank sent more than 61 million spam that illegally required customers to log in to unsubscribe.
Commonwealth Bank also sent another 4 million spam emails that didn't even have a "functioning" unsubscribe mechanism.
Then after all that CBA sent 5,000 spam emails to customers who had already gone through the unsubscribe process.
According to ACMA chair Nerida O'Loughlin, the failure of the bank to fix these problems showed "a complete disregard for the spam rules and the rights of its customers".
"Consumers are frustrated by marketing intrusions on their privacy, especially when there is no option, or it is difficult, to unsubscribe," she said.
"The scale and duration of the breaches by the CBA is alarming, especially when the ACMA gave it early warnings it might have some issues and the steps it took were ineffective."
Commonwealth Bank signs up to court-enforceable undertaking
ACMA had accepted a three-year court-enforceable promise from CommBank that it would allow an independent review of its email practices, implement any recommended improvements, provide regular compliance reports, and train its employees on spam laws.
The authority would be "closely monitoring" CBA's future behaviour, according to O'Loughlin.
"If we find future non-compliance, we will not hesitate to take further action," she said.
"This action is a further warning to all businesses that non-compliance with Australia's spam laws will not be tolerated."
Commonwealth Bank acknowledged the investigation and undertaking.
"We apologise to all customers impacted by these issues which should not have occurred," said the bank's marketing and corporate affairs executive Monique Macleod.
"We've fixed the issues that were the subject of ACMA's investigation, and strengthened our systems, processes and controls to support ongoing compliance."
ACMA emphasised that spam law enforcement is a priority for the organisation.
Just over the last 18 months, multiple businesses have paid $11 million in fines for breaching spam and telemarketing laws.
Commonwealth Bank shares are down 4.5% year to date.
