New Australia-Canada Anti-Spam and Unsolicited Telemarketing MoU Unveiled
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The IIC Australia recently held a joint event with the Communications and Media Law Association (CAMLA) and law firm Ashurst where Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Acting Chairman, Richard Bean, announced the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the ACMA and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to help combat unwanted telemarketing and e-marketing.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed to exchange information and intelligence to assist each other with spam and telemarketing investigations, improving the enforcement capabilities of both countries, with Richard Bean noting, “Given the use of increasingly complex and widespread transnational networks to undertake e-marketing and telemarketing, international cooperation is essential to respond to unlawful practices. We look forward to expanding our work with our Canadian regulatory counterparts to take the fight to unsolicited telemarketing and e-marketing operators.”
A media release from the ACMA outlines that “the MoU establishes a framework that will help both agencies to keep innovating in the battle to reduce the threat of unsolicited marketing messages can pose to the citizens of both countries. It formalises one aspect of long-standing cooperation between the ACMA and the CRTC. For example, the ACMA-developed Spam Intelligence Database software for reports and complaints-handling was shared with the CRTC in 2011 to assist it in processing spam reports from Canadian citizens”.
The event attracted an audience of 60 people from Australia’s media and communications industry to hear from speakers. Presentations focused on spam and unsolicited telemarketing trends both on a local and global scale.
Bio coming soon
Jean-Pierre Blais was Chairman & CEO of CRTC until June 2017. Before joining the CRTC, Mr Blais was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Board Secretariat’s Government Operations Sector.
From 2004 to 2011, he was Assistant Deputy Minister of Cultural Affairs at the Department of Canadian Heritage. His responsibilities included legislation, policies and programs related to copyright modernisation, broadcasting, the cultural industries and the arts, as well as trade policy and cultural treaties. As the Director of Investment, he reviewed transactions in the cultural sector under the Investment Canada Act.
From 1994 to 2004, after practising law with a large Montreal law firm, Mr Blais served successively as Senior Legal Counsel, General Counsel (Broadcasting) and Executive Director (Broadcasting) at the CRTC, and as Assistant Deputy Minister of International and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Canadian Heritage. In this position, he was responsible for Sport Canada, Canada’s bid for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, negotiating the UNESCO Treaty on Doping in Sports and Federal-Provincial cultural relations.
Mr Blais holds a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne in Australia, as well as a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Common Law from McGill University.
Jeremy Fenton is the Executive Manager for the Consumer, Consent and Numbers Branch at the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). He is responsible for enforcement of Australia’s spam and telemarketing laws, the Do Not Call Register, the regulation of Australia’s numbering arrangements and the ACMA’s phone scam disruption initiatives. He is also responsible for the soon to be launched BetStop – the national self-exclusion register for online and telephone wagering.
Mr Fenton has over 19 years’ experience in the communications and media regulatory environment, spanning unsolicited communications, telecommunications, broadcasting and content regulation, content classification and online child protection initiatives.
Mr Fenton has a BA (Communication) from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Diploma in Government (Investigations) from the College for Law, Education and Training.
Richard Bean was appointed Deputy Chairman of the ACMA in 2010 for a five year term. In 2015 his appointment was extended for a further two years to October 2017. He has been Acting Chairman since 27 February 2016.
Before joining the ACMA Mr Bean was General Counsel and Company Secretary at wireless broadband infrastructure and ISP owner Unwired Group Limited, subsequently acquired by Optus. He had previously held positions responsible for the legal and business affairs side of Australian commercial free to air television network Network Ten’s programming activities, and practised as a commercial, media and litigation lawyer at national commercial law firm Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst).
Mr Bean holds a BA (Hons) from the University of Sydney and a law degree from the University of New South Wales.
Sophie Dawson joined Bird & Bird ‘s Sydney office in February 2018 after 23 years in the TMT practice at another firm specialising in areas including privacy. She is now part of Bird & Bird’s leading global data protection team.
Ms Dawson’s privacy work has in recent years included advising on cybersecurity and data breach issues, acting for clients in relation to investigations by the OAIC, preparing Privacy Impact Assessments of key State and Commonwealth Government projects affecting privacy (including in relation to changes in relevant laws), and advising on privacy and surveillance aspects of popular home devices, telemetry and other projects. Ms Dawson and her team also regularly assist private and public sector clients with day to day privacy policy and other compliance issues, including privacy clauses in agreements. At Bird & Bird, this work includes a significant amount of compliance and other work for clients who collect, use and disclose data in multiple jurisdictions around the world and who utilise Bird & Bird’s extensive coverage in this area.
Ms Dawson has written the privacy and surveillance chapter of a popular Thomson Looseleaf service entitled Media & Internet Law & Practice for over 10 years.
Ms Dawson has also acted for clients in privacy-related litigation including as early as 1998, when she acted in the successful defence of a newspaper in one of the early cases seeking to establish a cause of action in tort for publication of private information.
Ms Dawson is on the executive committee of the Australian Chapter of the IIC. She is also on the executive committee of the Communications and Media Law Association, and sits on the advisory board of the Centre for Media Transition.
She has a first class honours degree in Law and an Economics degree from the ANU.
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