Compliance · 5 min read

In Australia, marketing texts are “commercial electronic messages” and are covered by the Spam Act 2003. The Act boils down to three rules.

1. Consent

You need the recipient’s consent before sending a commercial message. Consent can be express (they ticked a box or told you to text them) or, in some cases, inferred from an existing relationship and their conduct. Don’t rely on purchased or scraped lists. Keep a record of when and how each person agreed — SwarmSMS stores the source and the time for every subscriber.

2. Identify yourself

The message must clearly identify the business that authorised it and include accurate contact details. Make sure your sender or first line says who you are.

3. Unsubscribe

Every commercial message must include a functional way to opt out, and you must honour requests promptly (within five business days). SwarmSMS adds an opt-out line to marketing messages and handles STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT and OPTOUT automatically, then re-checks the opt-out before every send.

What about sending hours?

The Spam Act doesn’t set specific hours for SMS, and the Do Not Call Register is about voice calls and faxes rather than texts. Many marketers still avoid early mornings, late evenings and Sundays as good practice, and SwarmSMS lets you set a sending window for campaigns.

Practical checklist

• Add a clear consent checkbox to every sign-up form
• Use double opt-in if you want proof of intent
• Say who you are in every message
• Keep the opt-out line and honour STOP immediately
• Keep consent records and review them when you import lists
• Respect your carrier’s fair-use rules

Operating in other countries? The US (TCPA), UK and EU (PECR/GDPR) have their own rules. Always check the rules where your recipients are.