13 Feb 2014

Record fine for spam emails

10:53 am on 13 February 2014

A High Court judge has ordered a marketing company to pay the largest ever penalty for sending hundreds of thousands of spam emails.

The $120,000 figure was the full amount recommended by the Department of Internal Affairs in its case against Image Marketing Group. The company was in court this week after it sent 44,000 text messages and more than half a million emails several years ago.

It was the third case to be brought under anti-spam legislation - the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act. The department took the action after about 500 complaints from the public and said the penalty was a clear win for consumers.