Optometrist and eyewear retailer Bailey Nelson has apologised for spamming customers after a number of people were signed up to its email marketing list without consent.
A number of people spoken to by 1 NEWS reported receiving marketing emails after visiting one of Bailey Nelson's Auckland stores and providing their email address to receive a digital receipt or confirm appointment details.
The practice is illegal in New Zealand under the Unsolicited Eletronic Messages Act and carries a maximum fine of $500,000 for an organisation.
When queried, a member of staff in their Ponsonby branch apologised, saying "our system automatically is set up to send emails for marketing".
However, Bailey Nelson New Zealand spokesperson Maddy Mortiaux denied that, saying the staff member "has been misunderstood".
"It defaults to say "exclude" ... I have checked with our IT department and accounts team to make sure there has been no hiccup or crash with the program - they have confirmed that it defaults to "exclude" and that there hasn't been a glitch," Ms Mortiaux said.
"We love for our staff members to always ask if our customers would like to join our mailing list and BN Club, so somewhere, maybe this has caused a staff member to eagerly sign people up or forget to ask or they have felt under pressure to do so.
"I will be addressing this with EVERYONE in the entire NZ team to make sure this never happens again."
Bailey Nelson Australia spokesperson Marnie Goss said "we are deeply saddened to hear that one of our team members has breached our privacy rules and internal disciplinary action will be taken".
"All staff are trained and required to request permission from our customers to be added to our email database and must not do so otherwise."
A spokesperson for the Department of Internal Affairs, which is responsible for enforcing the Act, said they are aware of the situation, but would not comment on any complaint specifically.
"While companies can collect customer contact details for many legitimate reasons (e.g. to complete a transaction, or provide warranty or product recall information), sending commercial electronic messages without the recipient’s consent is a breach of the Act," they said.
"The Department can take a range of different regulatory actions in response to breaches of the Act including formal warnings, civil infringement notices, enforceable undertakings, and District or High Court outcomes.
"Companies should be aware of their responsibilities under the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act and guidance on best practice can be found on our website."
Bailey Nelson is an Australian company with 34 stores in Australia, seven in New Zealand, five in Canada and two in England.
Earlier this week, it was reported that PB Technologies had signed an enforceable undertaking with the DIA after it was found they used TradeMe user data to spam customers.
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