Spam Act 2003

Spam Act 2003 Policy

Your use of My CPE’s website and services is subject to this policy.

The Spam Act 2003 prohibits the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages with an Australian link. A message has an Australian link if it originates or was commissioned in Australia, or originates overseas but was sent to an address accessed in Australia.

Below is a simplified outline of the Act:
This Act sets up a scheme for regulating commercial email and other types of commercial electronic messages.
Unsolicited commercial electronic messages must not be sent.
Commercial electronic messages must include information about the individual or organisation who authorised the sending of the message.
Commercial electronic messages must contain a functional unsubscribe facility.
Address‑harvesting software must not be supplied, acquired or used. An electronic address list produced using address‑harvesting software must not be supplied, acquired or used.
The main remedies for breaches of this Act are civil penalties and injunctions The Spam Act 2003 defines a commercial electronic message as one that:
Offers, advertises or promotes the supply of goods, services, land or business or investment opportunities
Advertises or promotes a supplier of goods, services, land or a provider of business or investment opportunities
Helps a person dishonestly obtain property, commercial advantage or other gain from another person.
The Act classifies an electronic message as ‘commercial’ by considering:
The content of the message
The way the message is presented
Any links, phone numbers or contact information in the message that leads to content with a commercial purpose as these may also lead the message to be defined as ‘commercial’ in nature.

There are two forms of consent set out in the Act:
Express consent from the person you wish to contact; a direct indication that it is okay to send the message, or messages of that nature; Consent that can reasonably be inferred based on the conduct and the business and other relationships of the individual or organisation concerned. Certain messages can be sent without consent from the following types of organisations:
Government bodies
Registered charities
Registered political parties
Educational institutions (for messages sent to current and former students).

How does the Spam Act 2003 impact My CPE?
We provide educational material which requires us to communicate to our Recipients (members, non-members, students, participants and providers) Staff members have, at their disposal, e-mail facilities which they can use to email the public;
We produce e-mail newsletters which we send to members;
We produce, from time to time, special promotional material, which we send to the broader bookkeeping community.

How we comply with the Spam Act 2003
Employee Emails – Our staff members are not permitted to originate or forward unsolicited electronic messages that have a commercial content. We have embodied this requirement into our employment policy, which all staff must agree to.
Email Newsletters – We hold express consent from our Recipients (members, non-members, students, participants and providers) by virtue of the fact that they have subscribed to our services or paid for our products and services, which may include these forms of communication.
Promotional Material for Recipients – Firstly, we hold express consent or inferred consent from all Recipients on our mailing list. Some of our Recipients have given us express consent to receive such communications as they have advised us verbally that they wish to receive such promotional material.
Some of our members have given us inferred consent on the strength of their existing relationship status with us and the fact that they have previously provided their email address to us as a result of that relationship.
Non-members that we communicate with will either be former members, prospective members that we have already had discussion with, or members of the broader financial services community that have clearly published their email address and whom we feel might benefit from our range of products and services.
We appreciate that non-members may not want electronic communications from My CPE and therefore provide a mechanism to unsubscribe. Our email messages contain an unsubscribe option where any recipient can elect to “Unsubscribe”. We commit to removing the recipient from our address list within five working days of having received an unsubscribe request from them.
In all cases, our messaging will contain clear and correct identification of who we are and how we can be contacted. If you suspect that My CPE has been used by someone to send spam, please contact us immediately at hello@mycpe.com.au and we will investigate the matter.

Further information on the Spam Act 2003 can be obtained from here.