First Steps If You Receive A CASL Enforcement Notice

There have been a disappointing lack of publicly-reported enforcement actions under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) since it came into force in July 2014 – in fact, to date there has only been one. Given the ambiguity and complexity of the legislative scheme, combined with the potential for very severe penalties, this is disappointing to the business community that has sought to better understand the positions and interpretations that the CRTC actually took in live enforcement cases. Consequently, as an unfortunate result of the silence on the enforcement front, some organizations have taken the view that the CRTC has not been actively enforcing the legislation.

We understand that the CRTC has already received hundreds of thousands of complaints under CASL, and the CRTC has necessarily been involved in a substantial triage process.  Given the mandate and resources of the CRTC, and in particular its public statements with respect to CASL enforcement, we are of