Australian regulators fine Nokia for text message spam

Advertisers may have pinned their hopes on mobile advertising, considering that the medium has shown great potential and continues to show promise. Now, while TRAI reportedly earned Rs. 6 lakhs by fining telcos for unsolicited calls and messages, the Australian Communications and Media Authority fined Nokia by a hefty A$55,000 (approx Rs.2,896,611) for spamming users with text messages, as a part of their SMS marketing strategy. The authority has also asked Nokia to change their text message marketing to avoid this in future.

Wont forget 'unsubscribe' next time

The reason why Nokia has been fined is that the company sent messages which state how users can get the most out of their device without any option given to customers to unsubscribe for the message, which obviously come across as promotional messages. The unsubscribe option is required as per the law.

Reportedly, Nokia has stopped this service in Australia and is also said to take measures in other regions. Nokia has also agreed on training its employees on the legal requirements for SMS marketing. "Some businesses are still not getting SMS marketing right. The same rules apply to SMS marketing as for email marketing, and the same rules apply to all businesses, big and small," said Richard Bean, acting chairman of the authority. Nokia has been on a promotional spree, especially after its Lumia series hit off pretty well. It recently announced the Lumia 710 in India at a lower price, compared to what was revealed during the announcement of the handset.

A rise of 370 percent in reports of SMS spams was reported to the Australian regulator in 2010-2011. Last year, the Telecom Ministry has been all active keeping pesky calls and SMSes at bay. However, reports also suggested that the number of complaints regarding such calls/SMSes decreased to a considerable extent from the time TRAI put forth the stringent laws for telemarketers.

Reuters