Happy Canada Day! July 1, 2014 is also the day that CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation) comes into force.
You have no doubt seen the numerous (annoying) emails asking you to click buttons to consent to continue receiving emails. Basically CASL prohibits the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages and if companies or people do, then they face harsh penalties.
It is true that companies generally require consent to continue to send you emails after July 1, 2014, however companies may continue to send you unsolicited messages and do not necessarily require you to consent if there’s “implied consent”, or any one of the following apply:
the sender and the receiver have an existing business relationship including buying goods or services in the last 2 years the sender or receiver is a volunteer, charity or mutual members of a club or association the receiver has posted their email address publicly and the message is relevant to their business, role, function or duties the receiver has given their email address to the sender (like a business card) and the message is relevant to their business, role, function or duties Even if you have implied consent, however, CASL gives you a 3-year grace period to obtain express consent from those contacts.
If you have any questions about this, let us know!
Lawyer-Founder,
Paperclip Law
