The consumer finance company has paid a $1.55 million infringement notice to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) following an investigation that revealed Latitude sent more than three million commercial emails and text messages without an unsubscribe feature between June 2021 and March 2022, including to customers who have already attempted to unsubscribe.
The emails and text messages were mischaracterized as “information only” messages, but were actually commercial in nature promoting Latitude products, including credit cards such as 28° Global, Go Mastercard, Gem Visa and CreditLine, mobile apps and rewards programs.
“Companies cannot promote their products and services to customers under the guise of simply providing them with factual information. Customers should be able to withdraw their consent and stop receiving commercial communications. This choice must be made within 5 days,” ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said.
“Latitude failed on both counts. He also made no changes to his practices, even after we warned him several times that there might be compliance issues.
“These rules have been in place since 2003, so there is simply no excuse for Latitude – or any business – not to have compliant practices.”
In addition to the penalty, Latitude also committed to a “comprehensive” three-year, court-enforceable undertaking requiring it to appoint an independent consultant to review compliance with spam rules and make improvements where necessary. Latitude must also train its staff and report to the ACMA.
In a statement responding to ACMA’s announcement, Latitude said this accepts the authority’s findings and apologizes to customers.
“While the ACMA’s finding relates to communications that did not cause financial harm to customers, Latitude recognizes that the fine and enforceable liability reflect the scale and seriousness of the breach,” the company said.
“Latitude has agreed to all directions from the ACMA, including the appointment of an independent consultant to review current procedures, policies, training and systems, as well as further training for staff.
“Latitude improved its processes around electronic communications prior to the independent review,” he added.
In June this year, Latitude confirmed it had called off its planned purchase of Humm’s consumer division, citing “major turmoil in the financial markets”.
The deal, in which Latitude was to pay $35 million in cash and 150 million shares for Humm’s buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) and credit card operations, was originally announced in February for a total of $335 million.
At the time, Latitude said it had good organic volume growth, was profitable and was well capitalized to take advantage of a number of upcoming opportunities.
