{"id":5038,"date":"2017-06-27T16:13:47","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T16:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/?page_id=5038"},"modified":"2017-06-27T16:23:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T16:23:20","slug":"canadian-anti-spam-law-casl","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/?page_id=5038","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/fightspam.gc.ca\/eic\/site\/030.nsf\/eng\/home\">Canadian Anti-Spam Law<\/a>\u00a0(CASL) went into effect July 1, 2014. If you&#8217;re in Canada or send to Canadian residents, you need to comply with CASL.<\/p>\n<p>Be sure to review the Predictive Response &lt;link here&gt; \u00a0also, as they are sometimes more stringent than what&#8217;s outlined in CASL.<\/p>\n<p>This article is provided as a resource, but does not constitute legal advice. If you have more questions about CASL, we encourage you to contact an attorney in your area who is familiar with this issue.<\/p>\n<p>Note that there have been recent updates to the CASL effective <strong>July 1st, 2017<\/strong>, you can read more about these changes and what they will mean for your company by visiting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fightspam.ca\">FIghtSpam.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Liability<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are new consequences for spammers, including fines of $1-10M per violation. It&#8217;s important to note that individuals and companies, including directors, officers and other agents, are responsible and liable for the messages they send.<\/p>\n<p>During the transitional period, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the Competition Bureau, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, may investigate and litigate against entities who don&#8217;t adhere to CASL. After July 1, 2017, any individual will also be able to sue any entity they believe is sending spam messages.<\/p>\n<p>CASL regulations apply to any &#8220;Commercial Electronic Message&#8221; (CEM) sent from or to Canadian computers and devices in Canada. Messages routed through Canadian computer systems are not subject to this law.<\/p>\n<p>A CEM is any message that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>is in an electronic format, including emails, instant messages, text messages, and some social media communications;<\/li>\n<li>is sent to an electronic address, including email addresses, instant message accounts, phone accounts, and social media accounts; and<\/li>\n<li>contains a message encouraging recipients to take part in some type of commercial activity, including the promotion of products, services, people\/personas, companies, or organizations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fax messages and fax numbers aren&#8217;t considered electronic formats or addresses under CASL.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Exempt messages<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These types of electronic messages are exempt from CASL for various reasons. Please note that not all of these are allowable under Predictive Response\u2019s Terms of Use.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Messages to family or a person with established personal relationship.<\/li>\n<li>Messages to an employee, consultant, or person associated with your business.<\/li>\n<li>Responses to a current customer, or someone who has inquired in the last six months.<\/li>\n<li>Messages that will be opened or accessed in a foreign country, including the U.S., China, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/fightspam.gc.ca\/eic\/site\/030.nsf\/eng\/00273.html\">most of Europe<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Messages sent on behalf of a charity or political organization for the purposes of raising funds or soliciting contributions.<\/li>\n<li>Messages attempting to enforce a legal right or court order.<\/li>\n<li>Messages that provide warranty, recall, safety, or security information about a product or service purchased by the recipient.<\/li>\n<li>Messages that provide information about a purchase, subscription, membership, account, loan, or other ongoing relationship, including delivery of product updates or upgrades.<\/li>\n<li>A single message to a recipient without an existing relationship on the basis of a referral. The full name of the referring person must be disclosed in the message. The referrer may be family or have another relationship with the person to whom you&#8217;re sending.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If your message does not meet one of these criteria, consent is required under CASL.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Implied vs. Express Consent<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The law defines two types of consent: implied and express. Implied consent is a looser interpretation, whereas express consent requires action from both sender and recipient.<\/p>\n<p>Implied consent includes when:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A recipient has purchased a product, service or made another business deal, contract, or membership with your organization in the last 24 months;<\/li>\n<li>You are a registered charity or political organization, and the recipient has made a donation or gift, has volunteered, or attended a meeting organized by you; or<\/li>\n<li>A professional message is sent to someone whose email address was given to you, or is conspicuously published, and who hasn&#8217;t published or told you that they don&#8217;t want unsolicited messages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If your recipients don&#8217;t meet any of the above criteria, then express consent is required before you can send campaigns to them.<\/p>\n<p>Express consent means written or oral agreement to receive specific types of messages, for example &#8220;You want to receive monthly newsletters and weekly discount notifications from Company B.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Express consent is only valid if the following information is included with your request for consent:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A clear and concise description of your purpose in obtaining consent<\/li>\n<li>A description of messages you&#8217;ll be sending<\/li>\n<li>Requestor&#8217;s name and contact information (physical mailing address and telephone number, email address, or website URL)<\/li>\n<li>A statement that the recipient may unsubscribe at any time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The requestor can be you or someone for whom you&#8217;re asking. If you&#8217;re requesting consent on behalf of a client, the client&#8217;s name and contact information must be included with the consent request.<\/p>\n<p>During the transition period, July 1, 2014-July 1, 2017, you may continue to send messages to recipients from whom you have implied consent, unless they unsubscribe. After the 2017 cut-off date, you may only send to recipients with express consent or whose implied consent is currently valid under CASL\u2014that is, 24 months after a purchase or six months after an inquiry.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Predictive Response Terms of Use<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In many cases, Predictive Response \u2018s\u00a0&lt;link here&gt; more strict than what&#8217;s outlined in CASL, particularly regarding third-parties and implied consent. As a rule of thumb, you want to have written permission from every subscriber.<\/p>\n<p>Adhering g to Predictive Response&#8217;s policies is not only required, it also helps improve your campaign deliverability and subscriber engagement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Additional Requirements<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In addition to understanding what qualifies as CASL-regulated message, and what type of consent is needed, there are a few other details to keep in mind.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You must retain a record of consent confirmations.<\/li>\n<li>When requesting consent, checkboxes cannot be pre-filled to suggest consent. Each subscriber must check the box themselves for consent to be valid.<\/li>\n<li>All messages sent must include your name, the person on whose behalf you are sending (if any), your physical mailing address and your telephone number, email address, or website URL.<\/li>\n<li>All messages sent after consent must also include an unsubscribe mechanism, and unsubscribes must be processed within 10 days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/laws-lois.justice.gc.ca\/eng\/annualstatutes\/2010_23\/FullText.html\">full text of the law<\/a>, if you&#8217;re into that sort of thing. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission&#8217;s also set up an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.crtc.gc.ca\/eng\/com500\/faq500.htm\">FAQ page<\/a>\u00a0and some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crtc.gc.ca\/eng\/archive\/2012\/2012-548.htm\">guidelines<\/a>\u00a0for obtaining consent. If you have additional questions, we encourage you to contact an attorney in your area who is familiar with the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Canadian Anti-Spam Law\u00a0(CASL) went into effect July 1, 2014. If you&#8217;re in Canada or send to Canadian residents, you need to comply with CASL. Be sure to review the Predictive Response &lt;link here&gt; \u00a0also, as they are sometimes more stringent than what&#8217;s outlined in CASL. This article is provided as a resource, but does not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5038"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5041,"href":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5038\/revisions\/5041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.predictiveresponse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}