Most of Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation ("CASL")
will come into force on July 1st, 2014. After that date,
organizations will either have to have the prior consent of
intended recipients of commercial electronic messages, or ensure
that the messages being sent, or the recipients of those messages,
are exempt from the requirements to get consent. Some
technology-related provisions of CASL are deferred until 2015, with
private rights of action only becoming available starting in
2017.
The legislation, passed in 2010 and fully entitled "An Act
to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy
by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on
electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to
amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information
Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications
Act", is designed to deter the most dangerous forms of
