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I
n an article titled “E-Message
Rules Mean Business”
published in
PPB
’s April 2016
issue, readers were advised of the
ins and outs of Canada’s Anti-
Spam Legislation (CASL). As
reported, CASL is an anti-spam
legal regime intended to protect
Canadians from receiving,
without effective consent,
commercial electronic messages
(CEMs), while also allowing a
global marketplace perspective
for commercial enterprise.
CASL was enacted in 2013 and
most portions became effective
in July 2015. However, on July 1,
2017, the final chapter of the law’s
rollout will take effect when CASL
provides a private right of action
for those who believe a sender of
a CEM has violated the law.
Indeed, the end of the
CASL transition period is
fast approaching.
To summarize, the core of this
north-of-the-border legislation
prohibits CEMs
unless
(1) the
person to whom the message is
sent consented to receiving it,
whether the consent is express
or implied; and (2) the message
identifies the sender, how to
contact the sender and how
to unsubscribe.
To give perspective to the
scope of CASL, its defined terms
are worth noting:
•
“
C
ommercial activity
means
any particular transaction,
act or conduct
or any regular
course of conduct that is of a
commercial character
, whether
or not the person who carries it
out does so in the expectation
of profit[.]”
• “
A
commercial electronic
message
is an electronic
message that, having regard
to the content of the message,
the hyperlinks in the message
to content on a website or
other database, or the contact
information contained in
the message,
it would be
reasonable to conclude has
as its purpose,
or one of
its purposes
, to encourage
participation in a
commercial
activity
, including an
electronic message that:
(a)
offers to purchase, sell,
barter or lease a
product
,
goods
, a
service
, . . .
(b)
offers to provide a
business, investment or
gaming opportunity;
(c) advertises
or
promotes
anything referred to in
paragraph (a) or (b); or
(d)
promotes a person,
including the public image of a
person, as being a person who
does anything referred to in
any of paragraphs (a) to (c), or
who intends to do so.”
Having spent another
year heavily involved in the
promotional products industry,
I surmise that in practically
all business-to-business or
Gates to Spam
Haven: Closed
Canada’s
E-Message Rules
Soon To Be
Fully Enforced
by
Cory Halliburton
64
|
JUNE 2017
|
THINK