Vol. XIV, No. 6, July 2014

Canada's anti-spam law

Canada passed a new anti-spam law that took effect July 1, 2014 known as the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, or CASL. The law covers all email messages sent from or received in Canada. If you send email to recipients that live in Canada, the law applies to you even if you are not located in Canada.

If your email messages are affected by this law, here's some things you need to know:

You must have clear consent, express or implied, to send bulk email to Canadian email addresses. Preserve your records in the event you need to prove that you have that consent.
If you do not have express consent, you must get it by July 1, 2014. Implied consent refers to people who have purchased a product or service from you within the last 24 months.
Your emails must have a functional unsubscribe mechanism and you must remove recipients from your list no later than 10 days after they request to be unsubscribed.
Your emails must contain your contact information.
If people sign up for your list via an online form after making a product purchase, the check box to opt-in for your list must not be checked by default.

CASL applies to commercial email messages (CEM), which are defined as messages that "encourage participation in commercial activity." Newsletters may or may not be considered CEMs depending on their content. If they contain ads or anything that leads to solicitation for money, they can be considered CEMs.

The fines for violating the new Canadian anti-spam law are up to $10 million. Canada has set up a frequently asked questions site about CASL that you can check out for more information.

Vol. XIV, No. 6, July 2014

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Vol. XIV, No. 6, July 2014

Canada's anti-spam law

Vol. XIV, No. 6, July 2014

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