Canada's New Anti-Spam Law: Will You Be Ready By July 1st?

The Investment Management Group of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) recently hosted a seminar for clients in the investment management sector about Canada's new anti-spam law (CASL). Lynn McGrade moderated the presentation by lawyers Adrian Liu and Eva Chan, who are working with many of our clients to implement CASL. We appreciated the good turnout and the number of questions that we received from the people who attended our presentation.

If you missed this presentation, you should be aware of these five things about CASL: 

1. Most of CASL will come into force on July 1, 2014 .
2. CASL applies where a computer system located in Canada is used to send or access a commercial electronic message, which means the law also applies to firms located outside of Canada, if they send emails to recipients in Canada.
3. Unless the commercial electronic message you send falls under an exemption, you will need to satisfy the consent and content requirements, including having an "unsubscribe" mechanism in every email.
4. Starting July 1, sending an email to ask for consent is itself a commercial electronic message, which requires consent of the recipient (unless an exemption is available).
5. Firms can be liable for administrative monetary penalties of up to $10 million per violation.

Our message during our seminar was that firms should be working now to get ready for CASL, including carrying out the following:

1. Audit what kinds of commercial electronic messages you send, who you send them to, and how new contacts are obtained.
2. Consider the need for a "consent campaign" before July 1, 2014, including identifying which exemptions may apply to which categories of recipients or commercial electronic messages.
3. Review your unsubscribe mechanism for compliance with CASL.
4. Create policies, including for email communications, capturing consent and unsubscribing.
5. Train and educate personnel at your firm about CASL.

Our dedicated webpage for CASL - blg.com/antispam - has more information about CASL, as well as a listing of the members of BLG's CASL team.

Adrian has been working with many Canadian and U.S.-based investment management firms to help them understand and comply with CASL.

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