Marketing through electronic commercial messages

A commercial electronic message is any email, SMS, MMS or instant message that offers, advertises or promotes a business, good or service.

This could be:

  • a regular email newsletter from your business
  • texting your customers to promote a sale
  • sending a digital coupon to your loyal customers for a discount

Rules when sending electronic commercial messages

The Spam Act 2003 and the Telecommunications Act 1997 set out the rules for sending electronic commercial messages.

Before you send a message, you must:

  • get permission from the customer to send commercial messages
  • include a clear way for customers to unsubscribe or opt-out
  • register your branded text message sender ID.

If you break the rules, customers can report you to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). The ACMA can investigate and act, such as fine your business.

Branded text messages sender IDs

From 1 July 2026, businesses that send branded text messages (SMS and MMS) must be registered on the SMS Sender ID Register. The register helps stop scams that pretend to be from a trusted business or organisation.

A sender ID is the name at the top of text messages from businesses or organisations. It tells you who the message is from, like ‘ATO’ or ‘myGov’.

If you don't register your branded sender ID, telcos and message providers will label your messages as ‘Unverified'. This will group your messages with other unverified and scam messages on your customer's mobile phones.

Register your sender ID

Make sure your customers keep getting your genuine branded text messages. Contact your telco or message provider to register your business sender ID.

Find out more about registration on the Australian Communications and Media Authority website.

Get your customer’s consent

By law, you must have the customer’s permission to send electronic messages before you send them. This helps build trust with your customers, which is good for your business.

There are 2 types of consent

  • Express – the person knows and accepts that they will receive marketing emails or messages from you.
  • Inferred – the person has given you their email address, and it’s reasonable to believe they would expect marketing from your business.

When you get express consent, you also need to keep a record of who gave permission, when and how.

Give customers a way to unsubscribe

You must give people a way to unsubscribe from your electronic messages. Here are some things you must do under the Spam Act:

  • Make your unsubscribe instructions are clear and easy to see.
  • Remove people from your mailing list no later than 5 working days from them asking you to unsubscribe them.
  • Don’t charge fees to unsubscribe.
  • Keep your unsubscribe option functional for at least 30 days after you send a message.
  • Don’t ask the person to give extra personal information or log in to (or create) an account to unsubscribe from your marketing messages.

Examples of unsubscribe options

Here are some examples of unsubscribe wording:

  • Email — Unsubscribe: if you no longer want to get messages from us, simply reply to this email with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
  • Email — If you no longer want to get these messages, please click "unsubscribe".
  • SMS — Unsub: reply NO.

Or give a link to a website where the person can easily click a button to remove themselves from a mailing list.

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