B2B cold calling and cold email rules in Australia.

Under the Spam Act 2003, a commercial email needs the recipient’s consent, must identify the business that authorised it and must include a clear way to unsubscribe. Consent can be express, or inferred from the person’s conduct and business relationships.

Publishing a work address is not consent by itself. Consent can be inferred when the address is conspicuously published, it is reasonable to assume it was published with the person’s or organisation’s agreement, nothing says they refuse commercial messages, and your message relates to their role. An unsubscribe request takes effect at the end of five business days.

The Act is not limited to email. It covers messages sent to email, instant messaging, telephone and similar accounts, so text messages and direct messages need the same consent, identification and opt-out.

The Act bans supplying, acquiring or using address-harvesting software and the lists it produces. Buying a list does not show that the people on it agreed to hear from you, so check how any list was built before you use it.

Sending from outside Australia does not take a message outside the Act. A message has an Australian link if, among other things, the recipient’s organisation carries on business in Australia or the message is opened on a device in Australia, and the Act extends to acts done outside Australia.

Business numbers cannot be put on the Do Not Call Register. A number used for both work and private life can be registered if it is used mostly for private purposes, so a sole trader’s mobile may be on it. Numbers used mainly for faxes can also be registered.

If your call list could include registered numbers, check it against the register first; the register calls this washing a list. Its rules reach overseas businesses calling Australian numbers, and both the caller and the business that asked for the calls must comply.

The industry standard applies to every telemarketing call to an Australian number, registered or not. Calls are allowed from 9 am to 8 pm on weekdays and 9 am to 5 pm on Saturdays, never on Sundays, and never on New Year’s Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day or a weekday holiday given in their place. The times are measured where the account holder usually lives, so a Perth account holder means Perth time, unless the person agreed in advance to a call at another time.

As the call starts, the caller must state their given name, their employer, who the call is for and its purpose. On request, they must give contact details that include an Australian number able to take calls during business hours where the person is, plus a street, postal, email or web address, and say who handles complaints. That Australian number need not be the one the call comes from.

Caller ID must be on, the number shown must be able to take return calls for at least 30 days, and the call must end straight away if the person asks.

We reach Australian buyers by email and LinkedIn, and we do not phone Australian numbers at present. One reason is the contact-details rule above: we have no Australian number to give. Our callers, based in Canada, the US, the UK and South Africa, phone buyers in the US and Canada under the rules that apply there.

For each Australian brief we agree your do-not-contact list and the consent basis for email before launch, and that list is honoured for the life of the campaign.

The 2017 standard is scheduled to be repealed on 1 April 2027 under the sunsetting rules in section 50 of the Legislation Act 2003 unless it is remade, so check the Federal Register of Legislation for its replacement after that date. Questions about your own sector belong with your legal adviser.