Oh, Canada! CASL Anti-Spam Law Goes into Effect July 1

Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation goes into effect July 1, and American marketers who believe that compliance with the United States’ CAN-SPAM Act also will cover their activities in Canada could be setting themselves up for a rude and expensive surprise. Unlike the opt-out approach of the United States’ CAN-SPAM Act, CASL’s opt-in orientation prohibits all commercial electronic messages (CEMs) that are sent without proper consumer consent, including e-mail, text, social media, sound and image messages.

CASL defines a CEM as a business-related message sent by any means of telecommunication, including email, text, sound or image messages. Any individual or business entity that sends, or assists in sending, a CEM to a consumer in Canada is subject to CASL. And any CEM that is sent from, routed to or accessed from a device in Canada is subject to CASL regulations.

The monetary penalties that can be levied under CASL are exponentially higher than those of CAN-SPAM, and CASL will allow individuals to file private and class action lawsuits to collect statutory damages.

A Primer for CASL Compliance

To help businesses assess their online marketing practices for CASL compliance, we worked with internet marketing attorney David O. Klein, managing partner of Klein Moynihan Turco LLP, to write “CASL Compliance: A Primer on Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation.” This whitepaper summarizes the new law’s key provisions and identifies solutions for capturing and storing proof of consumer consent.

Creating a reliable, consistent system for recording proper consent that will hold up under legal scrutiny presents a significant challenge for marketers. ActiveProspect has solved this problem with its patent-pending TrustedForm Lead Certification solution. It is a simple way to achieve compliance, avoid business disruptions and maintain the ability to communicate directly with consumers.