Kogan is fined $310800 for email spam campaign

Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found Kogan has breached Australian spam laws. As a result – Kogan is fined $310800.

This follows hot on the heels of the $350,000 fine issued by the ACCC for deceptive advertising.

And the recent exodus of ‘insider share sellers‘ (employees) including Kogan divesting A$114,000,000 shares from the company. Analysts Simply Wall Street issued a share warning stating

“Over the last year, we saw more insider selling of Kogan.com shares, than buying with the major activity in the past 3-6 months. We don’t gain confidence from insider selling below the recent share price.”

Back to ‘Kogan is fined $310800 for email spam campaigns’

An investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found Kogan had sent more than 42 million marketing emails in which users could not easily unsubscribe.

To opt-out users had to log in to a Kogan account, including entering their password.

In fact, GadgetGuy started getting virtual truckloads spam emails from Kogan. We had to resort to an ACMA complaint as Kogan did not have an unsubscribe button. Nor had I signed up to an account as the company claimed.

Kogan – easier to pay the fine that fight it

Kogan’s attitude is that it is easier (and cheaper) to pay the fine than support lawyers. While that may be true, the fact remains Kogan got off easy by offering a three-year court-enforceable undertaking.

It will appoint an independent consultant to review its systems, processes, and procedures and implement any recommendations from the review. It covers all of the company’s trading names- Kogan, Dick Smith and Matt Blatt brands.

The undertaking also requires Kogan to train staff responsible for sending marketing messages. They must regularly report back to the ACMA on consumer complaints.

GadgetGuy’s take

Fact: Our previous reports have been accurate, attracting a plethora of reader comments bemoaning poor product, service and more.

Kogan (the company and by inference the man) has a sullied reputation with the ACCC, ACMA, various Departments of Fair Trading.

Kogan is a recidivist offender at the NSW Department of Fair Trading (the only state to publish figures). The main complaints are misrepresenting the goods, product quality, undisclosed fees or charges, supply lateness, and subsequent issues trying to get that fixed.

Productreview.com.au has seen Kogan reviews jump from 8750 to 14,196 in six months (very unusual behaviour). There has been a tsunami (thousands) of ‘one-line’ positive reviews from unverified purchasers to get it to 3.5 stars. Warning: Review factories can alter ratings using such flood campaigns to flush the negative ratings well down the site.

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