According to stuff.co.nz, the Department of Internal Affairs have added a third statement of claim in the High Court against Brendan Paul Battles and his company, Image Marketing Group. This third claim brings the total possible fines up to $2.1m! Read the article here.

The DIA’s Anti-spam Compliance unit had already filed two claims in the High Court earlier this year, accusing IMG and Battles of sending nearly 520,000 spam emails and 45,000 spam text messages back in 2009. Now, our anti-spam laws came into effect back in September 2007 and it clearly prohibits any unsolicited commercial electronic messages with a New Zealand link from being sent from, to, or in New Zealand. Read more on the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007.

So what should you take from this? Make sure you have the confirmed consent of the recipient before you even consider sending them any messages – I don’t think you’d want to end up in Brendan’s shoes!