I am not a Canadian attorney. I am just alerting you to the passing of this new law and how it may affect your business even if you are NOT a Canadian business-owner.
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has updated and enacted an act to regulate electronic advertising and commercial activities that appears to be tougher than even the US CAN SPAM Act. It is an amended and more severe adaptation of a previous version.
Main points to Know:
NOT only Canadian based businesses are affected by this law. It will impact your non-Canada based business if you send email or other electronic messages that may be opened by anyone residing in Canada.
“Consent Required” means It prohibits the sending of commercial electronic messages without the recipient’s consent (permission), including messages sent to email addresses and social networking accounts and text messages sent to a cell phone.
Under this law, if you email a Canadian resident and they have not unsubscribed from your mailings this does NOT absolve you of the requirement for consent. The burden is on the sender to prove consent was received.
Being found guilty of traversing the Canada SPAM and Other Electronic Threats may result in very high monetary fines.
The law takes effect this Tuesday Jul 1, 2014
Most email auto-responder or Customer Relationship Management providers will most likely update for the new rules going forward, but ultimately you are responsible to make sure you are compliant just as you are with US CAN SPAM. This appears to be a good checklist http://www.whatcounts.com/downloads/ebooks/ultimate-checklist-CASL.pdf
Law Office of Jason H. Rosenblum, PLLC
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