CASL/Spam: Action List for Business

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CASL/Spam: Action List for Business

You've probably heard about Canada's anti-spam CASL Act, whose provisions go into effect sometime later this year. We've created this quick action reference sheet for you to summarize its provisions, outline the changes you may need to make to your marketing workflows and recommend a course of action, where appropriate.

What's Exempt

According to Canada's official Canada Gazette website:

Since it applies broadly to commercial electronic messages, the Act captures regular business to business communications that are not the types of threats that were intended to be captured within the scope of the Act. To ensure these business communications are not regulated under the Act, the proposed Regulations include exemptions for commercial electronic messages that are:

� sent within a business; or
� sent between businesses that are already in a business relationship, where the messages are sent by an employee, representative, contractor or franchisee and are relevant to the business, role, function or duties of the recipients.

Rather, the Act targets a range of activities, from annoying to malevolent, that target individuals with either unwanted or deceptive communication. As a rule of thumb, if the person with whom you are communicating in the course of conducting your business does not fit into the above class of relationships, you in all likelihood need their consent in order to communicate or continue to communicate with him or her.

Opt-In Email
Summary	Risk/Exposure	Action Items
The law requires in most cases that your list be comprised of only those who have expressly given you permission to send them email or with whom you have a pre-existing business relationship.	The maximum penalty for a violation is $1,000,000 in the case of an individual, and $10,000,000 in the case of an organization.	Clean up lists. Determine whether you know the source of each contact who is on your list but with whom you don't have a relationship. Get them to opt in.
Individual Liability
Summary	Risk/Exposure	Action Items
The law creates a personal liability for officers, directors and employees in the event a fine is levied and not paid by the recipient.	Both government and individual creditors could pursue actions against you and your colleagues.	Talk to your insurance carrier to determine coverage for any liability. Create a brief for your carrier outlining your best practices to mitigate any exposure you may have, thus hopefully reducing your premiums.
Intent/Good Faith Efforts
Summary	Risk/Exposure	Action Items
Judges and regulators are given wide lattitude to determine intent and evaluate good faith efforts.	Good faith efforts can reduce or eliminate the otherwise significant financial risk.	Document the efforts you are taking to ensure your organization is in compliance; maintain an audit trail of opt-in dates or justification for existing business relationship determinations.

Willow Can Help

Willow can develop both print and email campaigns that provide individuals on your lists with incentives to opt in. It is especially important to undertake these efforts now. Once the law goes into effect, you will have fewer options to secure permissions.

A second area where we may be of service is list management. As direct mail providers, Willow has been managing lists for decades. We can provide you with merge, purge and organizational strategies to update your lists, as well as evaluate your email list rental vendors, if any, to ensure third-party list compliance with the law.

You've got a lot to do but with a solid strategy and good support, you'll get where you need to be. We stand ready to help.