CASL Compliance
On July 1, 2014, most provisions of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) will come into force. The purpose of this law, in part, is to regulate unsolicited commercial electronic messages (CEMs), commonly referred to as “spam.” If your company sends CEMs, you should take note of the law and examine the effect it may have on your business practices. ALIGNED wanted to share some helpful steps your company could take prior to July 1 to achieve CASL compliance.
The law will restrict all forms of CEMs sent via telecommunication, including email messages, text messages, instant messages and messages sent through social media sites. In order to qualify as commercial, CEMs only need to encourage commercial conduct and do not need to have an underlying expectancy of profit.
In order to send a CEM, a company must be able to prove that it has consent from the recipient. As such, it’s recommended that companies maintain a list of all contacts, how each contact consented to receive CEMs, the date consent was issued and the date consent expires (if it expires).
According to a 2014 Deloitte survey, only 13 per cent of companies understand the requirements of Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL) that came into force on July 1. How educated is your organization? Penalties for non-compliance with CASL are severe. It’s crucial that your company take measures to ensure your marketing initiatives are compliant. ALIGNED Insurance wants to help and we have prepared a 12-part CASL Compliance Toolkit to provide you with more information on the components of the law, details about penalties for non-compliance and resources to educate employees.
