Here are the top 10 elements of Canada's CASL anti-spam legislation and its impact for US companies marketing to Canadian citizens:
- CASL applies to all commercial electronic messages (CEMs) sent to Canadian electronic addresses. This includes emails, text messages, and social media messages.
- CASL requires that you obtain consent before sending a CEM to a Canadian resident. Consent can be express or implied.
- CASL requires that you identify yourself and your business in all CEMs. This includes your name, physical address, and email address.
- CASL requires that you provide a clear and conspicuous unsubscribe mechanism in all CEMs. This means that recipients must be able to easily unsubscribe from your mailing list without having to contact you.
- CASL prohibits the sending of CEMs that are false or misleading. This includes CEMs that contain false or misleading information about the sender, the content of the message, or the purpose of the message.
- CASL prohibits the sending of CEMs that are unsolicited. This means that you cannot send a CEM to a Canadian resident unless they have given you their consent to receive it.
- CASL prohibits the sending of CEMs that are excessive. This means that you cannot send too many CEMs to a Canadian resident in a short period of time.
- CASL prohibits the sending of CEMs that are harassing or annoying. This means that you cannot send CEMs that are intended to annoy, alarm, or inconvenience the recipient.
- CASL prohibits the sending of CEMs that contain viruses or other harmful content.
- CASL provides for significant penalties for non-compliance. These penalties can include fines of up to $10 million for individuals and $100 million for organizations.
The impact of CASL for US companies marketing to Canadian citizens is that they must comply with the law in order to send CEMs to Canadian residents. This means that they must obtain consent, identify themselves, provide an unsubscribe mechanism, and avoid sending false or misleading, unsolicited, excessive, harassing, or annoying CEMs. If a US company does not comply with CASL, it may be subject to significant penalties.
