Dating site Plenty of Fish fined $48,000 for spam

A screenshot of the iPad version of the PlentyOfFish app is shown in this undated handout photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - PlentyOfFish)

The CRTC isn’t a cheap date, as Plenty of Fish recently found out.

The online dating service was stuck with a $48,000 bill after violating the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s anti-spam regulations.

In a news release Wednesday, the CRTC announced that Plentyoffish Media had paid the fine following an investigation into commercial emails the website had been sending to its customers.

The emails had “an unsubscribe mechanism that was not clearly and prominently set out, and which could not be readily performed, as required by the legislation,” according to the release.

The violations occurred between July and October of 2014.

“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 Manon Bombardier, the CRTC’s chief compliance and enforcement officer, in the release.

“We appreciate that Plentyoffish Media changed its practices once it became aware of the problem.”

Plenty of Fish describes itself as the world’s largest dating site, having recently surpassed 100 million members.

The CRTC issued its first ruling under new the new anti-spam laws earlier this month in a $1.1-million judgment against Quebec company Compu-Finder.