The Government of Canada published today an Order in Council indefinitely suspending the implementation of the private right of action under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (or "CASL").
CASL's private right of action, which was scheduled to come into force on July 1, 2017, provided private litigants affected by a CASL contravention with the right to sue the offending persons for compensatory and statutory damages. CASL's private right of action would have stood in addition to the regulatory enforcement powers of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ("CRTC"). A recent blog post published by Alannah Fotheringham of BLG provides some additional background on this topic.
The rest of CASL remains in force, and CASL contraventions continue to be subject to regulatory enforcement and potentially serious administrative monetary penalties.
BLG's CASL Group has published a client bulletin authored by Bradley J. Freedman and Éloïse Gratton that provides a more detailed analysis on this significant development.
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