The New Anti-Spam Law: Protecting business and consumers from unwanted emails

摘要

E-mails about the federal anti-spam law, which come into effect on July 1, seem almost as numerous lately as the unwanted spam which the rules are designed to counter. You and other people at your collision repair business may have been receiving "opt-out" emails for several months now from advertisers and suppliers. Have you taken some time to consider how the new law may apply in turn to your own operations? Any suspicions you might have that lawyers can be overly wordy at times will be confirmed by the full title of the new law: "An Act to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act." That is quite the handle, so it should not be a surprise that this law is simply being referred to lately as the "anti-spam law" or by the acronym "CASL." It was passed in December 2010, but implementation was held off for three and a half years to allow for plenty of warning to businesses that will need to comply with it.