Lululemon Fined $702,900 for Spam Email Violations

ACMA Media Releases

Filed March 11th, 2026

Detected March 13th, 2026

Summary

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has penalised Lululemon Athletica Australia Pty Ltd $702,900 for sending over 370,000 spam emails that failed to include an unsubscribe option. The company also entered into a court-enforceable undertaking to improve compliance.

View original document View source feed page

What changed

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has imposed a $702,900 penalty on Lululemon Athletica Australia Pty Ltd for violating spam laws. The violations involved sending more than 370,000 commercial emails between December 1, 2024, and January 5, 2025, that did not provide a functional unsubscribe mechanism. ACMA found that Lululemon miscategorized service messages, such as delivery and order confirmations, as non-commercial when they contained marketing content or links to promotions, which is a breach of Australian spam regulations.

Lululemon must now comply with a court-enforceable undertaking, which includes undergoing an independent review of its spam compliance procedures and reporting regularly to ACMA on implemented improvements. This action serves as a strong reminder to businesses that all commercial electronic messages, regardless of their primary purpose, must include an opt-out facility. Failure to comply with spam laws can result in significant financial penalties, as demonstrated by this case and the $6.7 million in spam penalties paid by businesses over the last 18 months.

What to do next

Review all outgoing commercial electronic messages to ensure they contain a clear and functional unsubscribe mechanism.
Separate transactional or service messages from sales content and promotional links to avoid miscategorization.
Implement a process for independent review of spam compliance procedures and regular reporting to regulatory authorities if applicable.

Penalties

$702,900 penalty

Source document (simplified)

Lululemon penalised $702K for spam breaches

11 March 2026

Clothing company Lululemon Athletica Australia Pty Ltd (Lululemon) has paid a $702,900 penalty after sending more than 370,000 emails with commercial content that did not contain a way to unsubscribe.

An Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found that between 1 December 2024 and 5 January 2025, Lululemon mischaracterised service messages, including delivery and order confirmation emails, that also had a clear marketing purpose.

Authority Member Samantha Yorke said the spam rules are clear that if an electronic message contains any promotional or sales content, it is considered commercial regardless of whether the message has any other purpose.

“In this case Lululemon sent service emails such as shipping updates that also contained sales material and direct links to promotions,” Ms Yorke said.

“This was an easily avoidable error that has led to hundreds of thousands of marketing emails being sent without a way for people to opt out.

“Businesses need to understand that marketing messages must have an unsubscribe option and the simplest way to comply is to keep transactional or service messages separate from sales content and links.

“This is the fifth enforcement action the ACMA has undertaken in the last 18 months against businesses that have incorrectly treated messages as non-commercial even though they contained or had links to clearly commercial material.

“The law is clear – providing the ability to opt-out is mandatory for marketing messages,” Ms Yorke said.

In addition to the financial penalty, Lululemon has entered into a comprehensive court-enforceable undertaking committing it to an independent review of its spam rule compliance and to regularly report to the ACMA on the implementation of recommended improvements.

The ACMA has published information to help businesses comply with the spam rules here.

Over the last 18 months businesses have paid over $6.7 million in spam penalties.

MR 05/2026