Latitude Finance hit with $3.96 million penalty for breaching spam laws more than 2.7 million times

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has imposed a $3.96 million penalty on Latitude Finance Australia for sending more than 2.7 million marketing messages in breach of Australia's spam laws, making the consumer lender a repeat offender after paying a $1.55 million penalty for similar violations in 2022.

The regulator found Latitude sent more than 2.3 million commercial electronic messages between March 2024 and April 2025 that did not contain accurate sender information, breaching the Spam Act 2003.

Of those messages, 344,416 also failed to include a functional unsubscribe facility, denying recipients the ability to opt out.

ACMA member Samantha Yorke says the size of the penalty reflects Latitude’s repeated compliance failures.

"Latitude is a two-time offender when it comes to breaching the spam rules," says Yorke.

"The spam rules exist to protect people and they are not hard to follow. Businesses must include a way for people to unsubscribe and must accurately identify themselves as the sender."

Yorke says ACMA will be closely monitoring the company's conduct under new court-enforceable undertakings.

"We will be watching Latitude closely and if it breaches these undertakings, we won't hesitate to take the matter to court," she says.

The messages at the centre of the enforcement action promoted Latitude credit card products and financial services.

While recipients were told they could reply "stop" to unsubscribe, many messages were not capable of being used in this way.

“Under Australia’s spam laws consumers have the option to unsubscribe from commercial messages, and that process must work,” says Yorke.

“They must also provide accurate information within the message about how the sender can be contacted.”

Latitude's latest penalty is more than double the $1.55 million it paid in 2022, when ACMA found it had committed similar breaches of the Spam Act.

The significantly larger fine underscores the regulator's willingness to escalate penalties against repeat offenders.

In a statement to the ASX this morning, Latitude Group Holdings (ASX: LFS) has acknowledged ACMA's findings and enforceable undertaking

"Upon becoming aware that it had sent potentially non -compliant SMSs, Latitude reported the matter to the ACMA and immediately strengthened its spam compliance processes," says the company.

"As part of the enforceable undertaking, Latitude will engage an independent expert to confirm that its strengthened spam processes are operating compliantly."

The penalty is the latest in a string of spam enforcement actions by the regulator.

ACMA notes that businesses have paid more than $10.6 million in spam penalties over the last 18 months, reflecting a stepped-up compliance push by the regulator. This includes A $4.1 million penalty against Tabcorp Holdings (ASX: TAH) early last year.

In its July-September 2025 quarterly report, the authority disclosed it had also imposed an $871,660 penalty on betting operator Betfair and issued 1,055 compliance alerts to businesses for suspected spam breaches during the period.

The spam enforcement comes as Melbourne-based Latitude faces legal pressure on another front.

The consumer lender is named alongside Harvey Norman in a class action following a Federal Court ruling in October 2024 that found the two companies misled customers over "interest-free" promotional advertising.

That ruling was upheld on appeal in September 2025, with proceedings ongoing.