What is CASL
CASL is Canada’s anti-spam legislation act that came into effect July 1, 2014. It is in place to protect Canadians inboxes while making sure that businesses can still continue to compete in the global marketplace. Are you CASL compliant?
If your business sends out email newsletters to promote or market your organization, products or services, Canada’s new anti-spam law will affect you.
Should you care about being CASL compliant?
The Government of Canada leaves it up to you to understand and comply with the law, but yes, you should care. Happy subscribers equal happy customers!
If you use email, sms, social media or instant messaging to send promotional information to prospects and other important audiences, if you install software programs on peoples computers or mobile devices, and if you carry out these activities in or from Canada, you most definitely should care about the implications CASL could have on your marketing activities.
How to make sure you’re CASL compliant, in 3 easy steps
Here are the 3 things you’ll need to do to make sure you are CASL compliant:
- Review your email address collection methods. For all Canadian email addresses added to your email marketing database after July 1, 2014, CASL requires you to document consent, either implied or express. Implied consent is inferred based on actions, such as having an existing business relationship. Express consent is obtained when you explicitly ask your potential contacts for permission to send them email, and they agree. I highly recommend obtaining express consent.
- Obtain express content from existing Canadian contacts. For contacts added prior to July 1, 2014 you must be able to document express consent before July 1, 2017 (three years after the law goes into effect).
- Make sure ongoing communications have the appropriate information. Identifying the person, business or organization sending the message, identifying the email service provider, providing an unsubscribe mechanism, email contains a valid address, telephone, email and web address.
CASL Resources
For further information on CASL compliant, straight from the Canadian Governments mouth: Canada’s anti-spam legislation