An Auckland based marketing company has been ordered to pay $120,000 for sending spam via email and text messages - the largest penalty imposed for sending spam in New Zealand.

The civil case against Image Marketing Group (IMG) was taken by the Department of Internal Affairs under the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act and heard by Justice Mary Peters at the Auckland High Court.

More than half a million (519,545) messages were sent to New Zealand email addresses by IMG in December 2009.

In 2010 IMG targeted New Zealanders again during 21 email advertising campaigns which promoted sales of the company’s database products for between $1000 and $2000 each.

Nearly 45,000 text messages were sent to Vodafone and Telecom mobile users over a period of a month in 2009.

The Department of Internal Affairs took action against the company after receiving about 500 complaints from the public. IMG admitted that the messages sent to these people were spam.

Toni Demetriou, Team Leader Electronic Messaging Compliance says the result is an excellent outcome.

"IMG must now stop sending any further spam to New Zealand electronic addresses. This is a clear win for consumers who are sick and tired of receiving unwanted messages via email or texts.

"I encourage people to report electronic spam to us so that we can take action to stop this disruptive and unwanted activity.

"Taking a little extra time to use our reporting services can help us root out the companies and individuals who send spam that ties up your time and can be costly to New Zealand business."

The IMG text messages were sent from an Australian mobile number to New Zealand mobile users. They contained a hyperlink to a website promoting a mobile phone antenna booster.

When address holders sought to unsubscribe by replying to the messages they were charged the usual fee for sending a text message.

IMG also sold a database of about 50,000 email addresses to a third party.

IMG said it believed the recipients of the email and text messages had consented to receive commercial electronic messages.

As part of a pre-trial settlement IMG admitted breaching the Act. The penalties imposed were recommended to the Court by both the Department of Internal Affairs and IMG, and included a discount for IMG's admissions and co-operation.