CASL Update - Current Status Of The New Anti-Spam Law

While Canada's Anti-Spam Act (CASL) was passed in late 2010, progress with the associated regulations has been slow. It is now expected that CASL will not come into force until at least mid-2013.

One of the main goals of CASL is to regulate a broadly defined category of "commercial electronic messages" (CEMs) which include e-mails, tweets, text messages and all other forms of electronic communication (except telephone communications), when they are used for commercial purposes. In general, the law prohibits sending CEMs unless express, "opt-in" consent is obtained from intended recipients prior to sending CEMs. Once the law is in force, requests for consent to send CEMs will be governed by the same rules. The law also stipulates minimum information disclosure requirements for all CEMs, and for requests for consent to send CEMs. Furthermore, CASL will require that every CEM include an unsubscribe mechanism that can be "readily performed". To enforce these new rules,