Canada's new anti-spam law has now received royal
assent and will begin to take effect on July 1, 2014.
The law is broad and the penalties for non-compliance are very
steep. Virtually every person and business in Canada will be
affected by the law and will need to rethink how they send emails,
voicemails and other telecommunications.
Here are some highlights:
- The law prohibits any person from sending (or causing or
permitting to be sent) a commercial electronic message unless the
recipient expressly or implicitly consents to receiving the
message.
- The definition of "commercial electronic message" is
very broad and includes any message sent by telecommunications
(including e-mail, text messages, voicemail, social media
communications, etc.) if the purpose of that message is to
encourage participation in a commercial activity.
