Lululemon Hit With Hefty Fine After Spam Email Breaches
Athleisure brand name Lululemon has been fined more than $700,000 after hundreds of countless emails were sent out without offering the option to unsubscribe.
The brand name violated spam laws after sending more than 370,000 emails including commercial content, consisting of shipping updates and advertising material, without an unsubscribe choice, an Australian Communications and Media Authority investigation found.
The guard dog found Lululemon mischaracterised the service messages, including order verification e-mails, that had a clear marketing function between December 2024 and January 2025.
"In this case Lululemon sent out service e-mails such as a shipping updates that likewise included sales product and direct links to promotions," authority member Samantha Yorke stated.
Lululemon has paid the $703,000 fine, and says it takes its responsibilities seriously.
The guard dog described the breach as quickly preventable.
"Businesses require to understand that marketing messages must have an unsubscribe choice and the easiest method to comply is to keep transactional or service messages separate from sales content and links," Ms Yorke said.
"This is the fifth enforcement action the ACMA has actually carried out in the last 18 months against services that have incorrectly treated messages as non-commercial despite the fact that they consisted of or had links to clearly industrial product."
In 2024, the Commonwealth Bank paid a $7.5 million penalty after it sent more than 170 million emails that did include a method to unsubscribe.
Online gambling provider PointsBet has likewise been struck with a $500,000 penalty after sending 700 e-mails including a direct link to its wagering items without including an unsubscribe function in 2023.
Telstra paid a $600,000 charge after it sent close to 10.5 million text that did not comply with spam laws.
Lululemon was formerly fined more than $32,000 in 2017 for incorrectly informing clients they were not entitled to refunds or .
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged the website falsely specified in advertisements for sale products that consumers weren't entitled to a return, treatment, refund or exchange of a product under any circumstance.
The athleisure brand has participated in a detailed court-enforceable endeavor devoting it to an independent review of its spam guideline compliance, according to the guard dog.
Business will require to report to the ACMA on the application of recommended improvements.
A Lululemon spokesperson informed AAP the business was taking all relevant legal and regulative requirements extremely seriously.
"We have worked cooperatively with the Australian Communications and Media Authority to address their findings," the spokesperson said.
"We have completed a thorough evaluation of our practices for interacting with our visitors and have made updates to our standard guest journey emails, including our order confirmation and delivery alerts to guarantee ongoing compliance."