On July 1, 2014, Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) took effect across Canada. This legislation prohibits the sending of Commercial Electronic Messages (CEM) to an electronic address unless the sender has proper consent.
Commercial Electronic Messages (or CEMs) are an electronic message that is sent by means of telecommunication (ex. text or email) and are used by almost all small businesses in their marketing efforts today.
NOTE: A message is commercial if the content is leading someone to engage in a purchase or other financial exchange which will almost always be the case when you are marketing your business. It effects entrepreneurs, not for profits, and regular businesses.
The goal of Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (or CASL) is to reduce the effect of harmful spam.
There are 2 types of permission you need to email someone:
Explicit Consent: The contact has to give you explicit oral or written permission to send them CEMs.
Expressed Consent: When a person has opted into getting messages from you or implied they would be willing to receive information from you in the future about similar products and/or services. Example: they purchased a product and you reach out to inform them of related products.
The onus is on your organization to prove express consent.
You cannot send without consent, identification, and an unsubscribe mechanism.
All email marketing newsletters must clearly identify who the sender is, including the name of the sender, the business, and the location of the sender, as well as the email address, phone number, and any other contact information of the sender.
All email marketing newsletters need to have a clear and simple way to allow customers to understand how to stop communication from you. These details need to be in EVERY email marketing newsletter you send. A person can withdraw their consent at any time, and you are required to stop sending them CEMs within 10 days. You cannot charge any fee if someone unsubscribes.
Compliance with CASL is managed by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications commission (CRTC). If you're in violation of CASL, the CRTC can issue warnings or fines up to $10 million for a business.