Westpac told: 'Do not call'

The ACMA today announced that it has issued a formal warning to Westpac for breaches of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (‘DNCRA’).

The ACMA reported that Westpac was the bank that had the greatest number of complaints made against it to the ACMA concerning alleged breaches of the DNCRA. The ACMA claim that although Westpac had a relationship with its customers, ‘its procedures for recording the withdrawal of consent had failed.’

Westpac was reported to have agreed to and implemented a number of measures to resolve the issue including ‘washing’ their call lists against the Do Not Call Register.

The ACMA report that they have had a total of 40,000 complaints since May 2007 concerning the DNCRA, and noted a significant drop in the number of complaints from 2007 to the end of 2008.

It is evident that the message is getting through, that its not okay to call people on the Do Not Call Register – awareness has been assisted by a number of tools available to businesses to help comply including IP Telephony systems that ‘wash’ numbers before they are dialled.

We previously reported on the ACMA’s crackdown on compliance with the TCP Code, it is interesting to note that the ACMA has cast a wide net in its compliance enforcement activities.