Plenty of Fish dating site fined under anti-spam law

Canadian online dating website PlentyOfFish has paid a fine of $48,000 after regulators found the company violated its new anti-spam legislation.

The CRTC says the fine was levied after complaints alleged PlentyOfFish Media Inc. sent emails that did not have a clearly labelled or easy-to-use unsubscribe option.

The apparent violations happened between July 1 and Oct. 8 of last year.

PlentyOfFish was created by Markus Frind in Vancouver 12 years ago and now has more than 100 million users around the world. The service sends its users occasional emails which notify them of new messages from fellow users and highlight people with similar interests.

Regulators say after they notified PlentyOfFish Media of the investigation, the company updated its unsubscribe process to comply with the legislation.

The dating website has also agreed to develop a compliance program, which includes training for its staff and changes to its policies, to meet the anti-spam requirements.

"This case is an important reminder to businesses that they need to review their unsubscribe mechanisms to ensure they are clearly and prominently set out and can be readily performed," said chief compliance and enforcement officer Manon Bombardier in a release.

Earlier this month, the CRTC imposed the first financial penalty under the anti-spam law, which came into effect last summer.

Quebec-based corporate training company Compu-Finder was fined $1.1 million for what the CRTC called a "flagrant" violation of the anti-spam legislation. The company has until early April to contest the CRTC's ruling.