ARTICLE · 28 JANUARY 2014

SENDER BEWARE: Email Marketing Into Canada – Rule Changes Affecting U.S. Organizations

Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP

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Over the past years the USA has implemented initiatives to limit the volume of spam email.

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Over the past years the USA has implemented initiatives to limit the volume of spam email. Later in 2014 Canada will join other OECD countries by finally implementing its own anti-spam regulation. My colleague James Bond Q.C. and I have both previously written entries in this blog concerning the details of this new initiative (see our previous posts here and here). What is not widely appreciated amongst US-based organizations is that Canada's new rules may also have implications for them when their e-mail marketing includes electronic addresses located in Canada.

Canada's new anti-spam legislation ("CASL") goes further than many prior initiatives in this area, by:

a) generally requiring a separate and express "opt-in" consent, rather than an "opt-out" regime;

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