What You Need to Know About Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL)

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Canada’s new spam law, better known as CASL, is set to take effect on July 1, 2014. Similar to CAN-SPAM here in the U.S., Canada’s upcoming legislation is a way for regulators to help consumers dodge unsolicited commercial electronic messages sent via email, text and other channels. Here’s a quick overview.

CASL is a Canadian anti-spam law that protects Canadian email subscribers (those who have an email address using a .ca top level domain). The law is broken down into three parts that will require email marketers to have:

Consent – Senders need to get recipient approval to send marketing messagesIdentification – Identify who you are and whom you’re sending on behalf ofUnsubscribe Link – Every message must have a valid unsubscribe option

No, CASL also affects commercial electronic messages that are sent to other forms of electronic addresses. An electronic address is defined by CASL as an email account, telephone account, instant message account and some social media accounts. For example, Facebook messaging or LinkedIn messaging would fall within CASL’s restrictions.

Pretty much anyone who has no user consent or does not track or store this data. Likewise, those who purchase subscribers through other entities will be affected. Marketers who don’t clearly identify who they are or don’t use unsubscribe links should also take caution.

At any time, you can log in to your AWeber account to check opt-in confirmation for subscribers who have a .ca email address. From your account homepage:

Select “Subscribers” from the top menuChoose “Manage Subscribers”From the “Select field” drop down menu, choose “email” “ends with” and type .caView the Subscriber Information for each user to obtain opt-in date, opt-in ID and the IP address that was used to confirm opt-in

Although it is not required by CASL or CAN-SPAM, industry best practice says marketers should re-engage their email subscribers every six months to confirm they want to continue receiving content. What better way to ensure you’re giving subscribers what they want than by asking? Check out How Can I Re-Engage Inactive Subscribers?

More information

The AWeber Service Agreement may differ from what’s required by CASL so be sure to visit Canada’s anti-spam legislation website for additional guidelines and steps you should take to ensure you’re CASL compliant.

This post was updated on 6/20/14 to further clarify CASL and how it will affect commercial electronic message sending.

Print This Post By: Andrea Carter
Andrea Carter is a Public Relations Marketing Communications Specialist at AWeber Communications. Subscribe to This Blog by Email There are no trackbacks for this post yet.

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