CASL: A Year In Review

Posted by Steve Vermeiren - August 27th, 2015
Category: CASL, Email Marketing Tags: Canada Anti Spam Law, CASL

Since the Canadian Anti Spam Law came into effect on July 1, 2014 we have seen three major penalties enforced by the CRTC. These enforcements were not a joke. All three were significant fines against the companies for violating CASL. As we all now know, the CRTC is serious in their efforts to try and reduce spammy electronic communications as well as proper permission management processes.

There were a number of reasons why these companies were fined. Essentially, there are three rules that you must abide by in order to stay on the right side of the law and these companies did not abide by one or all three of these basic rules:

1. Consent has to be obtained and proven; implied or expressed.
2. The sender’s contact information must be provided.
3. An unsubscribe mechanism must be in place and unsubscribes must be processed within 10 days.

To dive into number 1 a little further, not only does consent have to be obtained, but there also has to be an audit trail to support and prove consent.

Currently companies only have to worry about a fine from the CRTC, but once July 1st, 2017 hits, companies will also have to worry about civil lawsuits. This means that consumers will have the ability to bring class-action lawsuits upon companies that blatantly disregards the CASL rules.

All in all, it is important for companies to take this seriously. So far, there have been approximately 330,000 complaints issued to the CRTC and the CRTC has emphasized that they will continue to enforce CASL. Not only would an enforcement cause financial penalties, but it would also bring unwelcome publicity and essentially give your company a bad reputation.

At itracMarketer, we have spoken with many companies that believe they are CASL compliant by putting in place some basic procedures. However when we start asking questions about how they source, manage, track and send emails; in many cases we have found gaps and areas where they are at risk. This is especially true for companies that send both mass email campaigns as well as one-to-one sales messages.

We encourage you to review your CASL compliance program and if you have not implemented a CASL tool and/or processes for your email marketing efforts please contact [email protected] so we can help you get on the right side of the law.

Check out our CASL manager solution page to review the comprehensive features that allow you to manage your email programs in full compliance and worry-free.

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