The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has revised and finalized the Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations which will take effect when Canada's new Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) comes into force. The revised regulations provide the detailed disclosure requirements for commercial electronic messages (CEMs), or requests to send such messages. Fortunately, the revised regulations address many of the concerns first raised by industry members when the CRTC published its draft regulations in 2011.
When CASL comes into force, CEMs will be required to disclose the name under which the sender of the message carries on business. If the message is sent on behalf of a third party, it will be necessary to identify that party as well, and indicate which party sent the message, and on whose behalf it was sent.
The revised regulations create a much less onerous requirement to disclose contact information for the sender than the draft regulations would have. The revised regulations will require CEMs to include the following contact information for either the sender of the message or the person on whose behalf it was sent: (i) a mailing address; and (ii) a telephone number providing access to a person or a voice messaging system, an email address, or a web address. In contrast, the previously proposed draft regulations would have required CEMs to include each of these contact methods, for both the sender of the message and, if applicable, the person on whose behalf it was sent. All CEMs will be required to contain an unsubscribe mechanism that may be "readily performed," moving away from a requirement based on the number of "clicks" it would take to unsubscribe.
Parallel changes to the requirements will apply when request for consent to send a CEM is solicited, which may be done orally or in writing. A request for consent will be required to identify the purposes for which consent is sought, and the name under which the person seeking consent carries on business. If applicable, the request must include the name under which the person on whose behalf consent is sought carries on business, and indicate which person is seeking the consent and on whose behalf it is sought. The request will be required to include the same contact information required in a CEM in respect of one of these persons.
A request for consent to send CEMs will be required to indicate that consent may be withdrawn.
Overall, the revised CRTC regulations address many of the concerns raised by industry participants during the consultation period. Industry Canada is currently revising a second set of regulations under CASL, which will address consent sought on behalf of a third party whose identity is not known, as would be done by third-party mailing list suppliers. No coming into force date for CASL has been announced; however, the law is expected to take effect in 2012.
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