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ARTICLE · 04 MARCH 2015

Defending Enforcement Under CASL: Compliance With Informational Formalities

Bennett Jones LLP
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In 2014, the anti-spam provisions of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation came into force, creating a wide array of compliance requirements for businesses.

CanadaCorporate/Commercial Law
J. Sébastien Gittens
J. Sébastien Gittens
Ravi Parhar
Ravi Parhar
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In 2014, the anti-spam provisions of Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) came into force, creating a wide array of compliance requirements for businesses. CASL prohibits a person from sending or causing or permitting to be sent to an electronic address a commercial electronic message unless (a) the message is exempt or (b) the message meets the formality requirements and the person receiving the message has consented to receiving it. While the CRTC has only publicly acknowledged one enforcement action under CASL as of February 26, 2015, this series of posts, "Defending Enforcement under CASL," considers the foundations of a compliance defence to liability under CASL.

A person may be liable for failure to meet the formality requirements of CASL. Generally speaking, CASL provides that a CEM must contain:

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