Latitude Finance Australia has been ordered to pay a $3.96 million penalty after the Australian Communications and Media Authority found the lender breached spam laws almost 3 million times.
Latitude Finance Australia has paid a $3.96 million penalty after the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that the consumer lender had breached Australia’s spam laws more than 2.7 million times between March 2024 and April 2025.
The latest action, which follows a $1.55 million ACMA penalty against Latitude in 2022 for similar conduct, puts renewed scrutiny on the lenders’ marketing governance and the robustness of its digital communications controls.
Repeat breaches trigger tougher response
ACMA’s latest investigation found Latitude sent more than 2.3 million commercial messages that did not include accurate contact information for the sender, with 344,416 of those also lacking a functional unsubscribe option.
Many messages told customers they could reply “STOP” to opt out, but ACMA determined a significant portion of texts were not capable of processing that request.
In explaining the size of the new penalty, ACMA member Samantha Yorke stressed that the regulator viewed the violation as a repeated failure as opposed to an isolated breach.
“Latitude is now a two‑time offender and it is disappointing that it let consumers down again,” Yorke said.
She added that the rules were longstanding and well understood across the industry.
“The spam laws have been in place for more than 20 years, and there is simply no excuse for ongoing non‑compliance, particularly after a prior enforcement action,” she noted.
The breaches were uncovered through Latitude’s mandatory compliance reporting, which it was required to undertake under a court‑enforceable undertaking accepted by ACMA following the 2022 investigation.
That earlier investigation found Latitude had mischaracterised promotional emails and texts as “information only” messages and sent more than 3 million messages without unsubscribe functionality or proper consent.
This prompted a three‑year undertaking with independent oversight and staff training obligations.
New court‑enforceable undertakings
Despite the earlier measures, ACMA has imposed fresh court‑enforceable undertakings on Latitude alongside the penalty.
Under the new commitments, Latitude must appoint an independent consultant to conduct a further review of its spam law compliance and provide regular, comprehensive reports back to ACMA.
Yorke emphasised that the regulator would be closely watching how Latitude responded, particularly given its compliance history.
“Under Australia’s spam laws consumers have the option to unsubscribe from commercial messages, and that process must work,” she said.
“They must also provide accurate information within the message about how the sender can be contacted.”
Latitude’s response
In an ASX announcement released on Wednesday (15 April), Latitude said it accepted ACMA’s findings and confirmed it had entered into the latest enforceable undertaking and paid the near $4 million fine.
The company said that once it identified that “potentially non‑compliant SMSs” had been sent, it notified ACMA and “immediately strengthened its spam compliance processes.”
Latitude added that, under the undertaking, it would appoint an independent expert to ensure that its spam processes were operating in line with the law.
The action against Latitude comes amid a broader enforcement push on digital marketing practices, with ACMA having levied multimillion‑dollar penalties and enforceable undertakings on other large financial institutions over recent years for breaches involving missing or defective unsubscribe functions.
[Related: Latitude fined $1.55m for spam breaches]
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