Lululemon repentant after $702,000 fine for email law breaches

Harry Booth

11th Mar 2026

Lululemon’s Australian business has been issued a $702,900 penalty by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), following an investigation into its misuse of emails.

From December 1, 2024, to January 5, 2025, the ACMA found that the clothing retailer sent more than 370,000 emails with commercial content.

These emails did not include an unsubscribe option, which constituted a breach of spam regulations.

“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,” ACMA member Samantha Yorke said.

The rules – set out in Australian law – derive from the Spam Act 2003, and the Spam Regulations 2021. These regulations require senders of marketing content to obtain recipients’ consent and include an option to unsubscribe.

A spokesperson for Lululemon told Internet Retailing that the company has completed a review of its communications following the penalty.

“We are committed to delivering an exceptional guest experience that complies with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements,” the spokesperson added.

“We take this responsibility very seriously and have worked cooperatively with the ACMA to address their findings.

“We have completed a thorough review of our practices for communicating with our guests and have made updates to our standard guest journey emails, including our order confirmation and delivery notifications to ensure ongoing compliance.”

The ACMA issued a warning to all businesses, reminding them of their obligation to avoid sending spam communications. 

“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,” Yorke added.

In the last 18 months, the ACMA has issued more than $6.7 million in spam penalties.