AustraliaDo Not Call Register Act 2006, Unsolicited Marketing Faxes
Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth), ss. 12A-12C, 24-25, 30, Sch. 1A, Sch. 2
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force since .
A telephone contact rule binding public and private bodies.
As of .
What it requires
- Do not send, or cause to be sent, an unsolicited marketing fax to an Australian number registered on the Do Not Call Register unless the relevant account-holder or their nominee consented, or the fax is a designated marketing fax under Schedule 1A.
- A designated marketing fax is one authorised by a government body or registered charity supplying its own goods or services, by a registered political party, an independent parliamentarian or an election candidate raising funds for electoral or political purposes, or by an educational institution faxing a number used primarily for the private or domestic purposes of a current or former student or a member of their or an employee's household.
- Treat consent as express, or reasonably inferred from the account-holder's conduct and business or other relationships; never treat a number as consenting merely because it has been published, treat express consent that does not itself state a period as lapsing three months after it is given, and check any ACMA determination on inferring consent for a marketing fax sent to a business number.
- A fax number is eligible for registration on the Do Not Call Register whenever it is used or maintained exclusively for sending or receiving faxes, whether or not it is a business number.
- Do not enter into a contract, arrangement or understanding with another person if there is a reasonable likelihood they, or their employees or agents, will send marketing faxes to numbers eligible for the Do Not Call Register, unless the contract expressly requires compliance with this Act.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionNo
Penalty structure
Section 25 tiers the pecuniary penalty a court may order under section 24 for a contravention of a civil penalty provision by whether the defendant is a body corporate, whether it has a prior record for that same provision, and whether the provision is subsection 11(1) or (7) or 12B(1) or (8) or another one. With no prior record: 100 penalty units per contravention for a body corporate (2,000 aggregate for 2 or more contraventions on one day), 50 units for any other provision (1,000 aggregate); 20 units per contravention for an individual (400 aggregate), 10 units for any other provision (200 aggregate). With a prior record: 500 units per contravention for a body corporate (10,000 aggregate), 250 units for any other provision (5,000 aggregate); 100 units per contravention for an individual (2,000 aggregate), 50 units for any other provision (1,000 aggregate). The figures recorded here are the highest tier (body corporate, prior record, s. 11/12B), converted at $364 per penalty unit, the amount the Crimes (Amount of a Penalty Unit) Instrument 2026 fixes under Crimes Act 1914 subsection 4AA(1A) for a civil penalty provision committed on or after . Schedule 3 separately lets the ACMA give an infringement notice as a lower-value alternative to Federal Court proceedings: for a body corporate, 20 penalty units for a single alleged contravention of s. 11 or 12B (up to 1,000 units for 50 or more), and half that for any other civil penalty provision; for an individual, 4 penalty units for a single alleged contravention of s. 11 or 12B (up to 200 for 50 or more), and half that for any other provision.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- AUD
- Fixed cap
- 3,640,000
- Per violation unit
- Violation
- Per violation amount
- 182,000
What it reaches
Obligation class
Consent, Prohibition
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 12B bars sending, or causing to be sent, an unsolicited marketing fax to an Australian number registered on the Do Not Call Register, unless the relevant account-holder or their nominee consented or the fax is a designated marketing fax exempt under Schedule 1A, on the same terms Schedule 1 uses for designated telemarketing calls (a government body or registered charity supplying its own goods or services, a registered political party, an independent parliamentarian or an election candidate, or an educational institution faxing a number used primarily for the private or domestic purposes of a current or former student, or a member of their or an employee's household).
Section 12C separately bars entering into a contract, arrangement or understanding likely to result in marketing faxes to eligible numbers unless it expressly requires compliance with the Act.
Consent follows the same Schedule 2 rules as a telemarketing call (express or reasonably inferred from conduct and business or other relationships, never from mere publication of the number, and lapsing after three months unless stated otherwise), except that the ACMA may, by legislative instrument, determine circumstances in which consent for a marketing fax sent to a business number may or may not be inferred.
A number used or maintained exclusively for sending or receiving faxes is eligible for the Register regardless of whether it is a business number, unlike an ordinary business voice number. Part 2A and Schedule 1A were inserted into the Act by the Do Not Call Register Legislation Amendment Act 2010 and commenced later than the Act's original telemarketing-call provisions.
Section 12B is a civil penalty provision carrying the same section 25 penalty tiers as section 11, and section 30 lets the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2), on the application of the ACMA or a person who has suffered loss or damage from one or more contraventions found in ACMA-initiated proceedings under section 24, order the perpetrator to compensate that person; this is an application within an existing proceeding, not a free-standing civil action.
When LexLint raises it
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Read the law
Federal Register of Legislation, official compilation of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.