Groupon warned by ACMA for emailing deals without consent

Online retail giant Groupon has been formally warned by the Australian Communications and Media Authority for sending email alerts on deals to people without their consent.

Complaints had been made to the media watchdog that, after trying to unsubscribe from Groupon’s daily and weekly newsletters, customers were only taken off one mailing list, but not both.

ACMA ruled that information provided by Groupon was not clear on what they were unsubscribing from, and that “it was reasonable for individuals to expect they would be unsubscribed from all newsletters unless they were advised otherwise.”

The watchdog also found that some unsubscribe requests made to Groupon were not actioned within the five working days required by the Spam Act.