Australia’s ACMA rules order confirmations and shipping updates were commercial messages, because they contained promotions.
Australian communications regulator ACMA has fined Lululemon A$702,900 (approximately US$460,000) for breaching the Spam Act 2003. Specifically for sending more than 370,000 emails between December 2024 and January 2025 without a functioning unsubscribe mechanism.
The violation came down to a classification problem the industry has been warned about for years: the company was sending what it called “service” emails: order confirmations, shipping updates, delivery notifications that also contained promotional content. Links to sales, marketing messaging, and banners designed to encourage further purchases.
Under Australian law, that makes them commercial messages. Full stop. No grey area.
ACMA was unambiguous: “If an electronic message contains any promotional or sales content, it is considered commercial regardless of whether the message has any other purpose.”
The regulator called the issue easily avoidable. Beyond the fine, Lululemon must conduct an independent compliance review, update its email systems and templates, and report back to ACMA on the remediation.
The company said it cooperated with the regulator and has already updated its order confirmation and delivery emails.
This is the fifth enforcement action in 18 months on this specific issue
ACMA has been systematically going after misclassification. The Lululemon fine sits in a pattern alongside Commonwealth Bank (A$7.5M), Tabcorp (A$4M), DoorDash (A$2M), Kmart (A$1.3M), and Ticketek (A$515K) all have been hit for failures in unsubscribe handling, consent, or commercial message classification.
The enforcement message is consistent: post-purchase and lifecycle emails that blend transactional and promotional content are a compliance liability, not a grey area.
What email teams need to take from this
If your order confirmation or shipping email contains a promotional banner, a “you might also like” block, or a link to a current sale, it is legally a marketing email in Australia and needs an unsubscribe link.
The fix ACMA recommends is simple: keep service messages purely transactional, and handle promotions in separate emails that carry full commercial compliance.
