When CASL Consents Expire

I've been getting a lot of emails from law firms and other professional services firms warning me that if I do not confirm my subscription to their newsletters, they will stop sending them to me. These firms have misunderstood changes to Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL) that came into force on July 1.

The changes to rules for sending "commercial electronic messages" (CEMs) only affected the transitional three-year expiry for implied consents deriving from existing business and non-business relationships.

These changes did not affect express consents or implied consents deriving from putting one's coordinates on a webpage or handing out a business card. These consents never expire, unless the recipient unsubscribes.