November 26, 2022
CASL (FEDERAL ANTI-SPAM LAW)
COMPLIANCE PRECEDENTS AND CHECKLISTS
Do you need CASL precedents or checklists
to comply with Canadian anti-spam law?
In addition to our legal services, we offer lawyer-prepared CASL compliance precedents and checklists that identify key consent, disclosure and other requirements to send commercial electronic messages (CEMs) to Canadians and provide checklists and templates to comply with CASL.
Our compliance precedents and checklists are an excellent way to mitigate risk and avoid common CASL-related issues, including relating to express consent requests, sender identification information for CEMs, CASL-compliant unsubscribe mechanisms, business related exemptions and types of implied consent and documenting consent and scrubbing distribution lists. We also offer a template CASL corporate compliance program based on the Canadian CRTC’s CASL compliance program recommendations.
All of our Canadian CASL compliance precedents and checklists include practical overviews of each of the relevant requirements, compliance checklists and guidance how to use them.
Our CASL compliance checklists and precedents are Word version documents with PayPal checkout and credit card payment options.
For more information and to order see: CASL Compliance Checklists and Precedents.
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Canada’s federal anti-spam legislation (CASL) came into force in 2014. Since then, marketers and their advisors have been working to comply with what remains a complex law with outstanding uncertainties in some key areas.
In providing CASL advice to clients since CASL came into force, and even over the past several years, I regularly see some of the same compliance errors being made.
In this regard, one of the most common CASL compliance errors is electronic marketers relying on lists provided by third party list providers without knowing whether they are CASL compliant.
While there is nothing wrong per se with using list brokers or third-party lists, such lists, if commercial electronic messages (CEMs) are sent to Canadians, must have been compiled to comply with CASL.
In some cases, third party marketing lists are assembled by non-Canadian entities, where it is not clear whether, for example, express consent was obtained to use the e-mail addresses (or if CASL was complied with at all).
Over the past nine years, since CASL first came into force, my experience is that many U.S. clients, for example, are not aware that Canada has different anti-spam rules than in the U.S. or that Canadian law generally requires positive opt-in consent unless a category of implied consent or exception applies under CASL.
In this regard, CASL’s jurisdictional reach is broad and applies to CEMs sent from or received by a computer system located in Canada, subject to some limited exceptions. As such, U.S. marketers conducting electronic marketing to Canadians must comply with CASL.
In other cases, where e-mails are compiled by third parties from the web for B2B marketing, it is commonly not clear whether the category of implied consent for compiling such lists (the so-called “conspicuous publication” category of implied consent under CASL) has been complied with or documented.
In sum, while marketers can certainly use e-mail addresses obtained from third parties or list providers, they should satisfy themselves that the e-mail lists obtained comply with CASL’s express and implied consent requirements.
If marketers plan to use third party lists for electronic marketing to Canadians, it is also prudent to ensure that any list sharing agreement include representations that the list provider has complied with CASL and indemnification provision in favour of the marketer acquiring the list in the event the list provider has not complied with Canadian federal anti-spam law. Of course, such provisions are only as good as the ability to enforce them against a list provider.
For more information about CASL, see: Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL), CASL Compliance, CASL Compliance Tips, CASL Compliance Errors and CASL FAQs.
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CASL (CANADIAN ANTI-SPAM LAW) COMPLIANCE TIPS
For tips to comply with Canada’s federal anti-spam legislation (CASL), see: CASL Compliance Tips.
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SERVICES AND CONTACT
We are a Toronto based competition and advertising law firm offering business and individual clients efficient and strategic advice in relation to competition/antitrust, advertising, Internet and new media law and contest law. We also offer competition and regulatory law compliance, education and policy services to companies, trade and professional associations and government agencies.
Our experience includes advising clients in Toronto, Canada and the United States on the application of Canadian competition and regulatory laws and we have worked on hundreds of domestic and cross-border competition, advertising and marketing, promotional contest (sweepstakes), conspiracy (cartel), abuse of dominance, compliance, refusal to deal and pricing and distribution matters. For more information about our competition and advertising law services see: competition law services.
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For more information about our firm, visit our website: Competitionlawyer.ca
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
