Mobile retailer Lycamobile has been fined a second time and sharply criticised by the Australian Communications and Media Authority for failing to meet its public safety obligations.
The company was fined an extra $186,480 by the ACMA for not meeting the terms of a court-enforceable undertaking it entered following a breach in 2021, for which it was fined $604,800.
The 2021 breach was over its failure to provide customer data to the Integrated Public Number Database used by police and emergency services to locate and tend to the patient.
The ACMA said Lycamobile failed to undertake proper identity checks when activating prepaid mobile services.
It was directed to provide written reports about how it would improve verification for prepaid SIMs, what staff training it would undertake, and who would act as its independent auditor.
The latest fine was issued, the ACMA said, because the company failed to take action in required timeframes.
“Lycamobile has shown an ongoing disregard for its obligations and the commitments it has made to the ACMA," chair Nerida O’Loughlin said in a statement.
“It consistently missed deadlines, provided inadequate reports and when we raised these matters on multiple occasions it gave subsequent commitments that it then failed to meet.
“We take these types of commitments very seriously and will act when telcos fail to meet them.
“Alongside payment of this penalty, we are finally seeing signs that Lycamobile is starting to take its obligations seriously.”
The latest action means Lycamobile’s enforceable undertaking will last another two years, and it could face federal court action for any further contraventions.
