Anti-Spam Legislation – Coming “soon” to an inbox near you

Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) was enacted in December 2010. Heard about it?  It’s quite likely that you have, given its broad application to online communications, its significant penalties, and its reach outside of Canada.    

This widely-anticipated legislation is not yet in force, and may be delayed until later this year. 

Last fall, the government issued two sets of draft regulations for public comment. Many stakeholders responded by commenting not only on the specifics of the draft regulations, but also on what the regulations didn’t say or do, for example: 

  • how do I interpret key terms?
  • why does the Act target all commercial electronic messages, making permissible activities “exceptions” to the rule?
  • will companies have any lead time before the legislation comes into force, to put measures and policies in place?

The government has since received further input from interested stakeholders, and is expected to issue new regulations in the coming weeks. We’ll provide updates to you here on new developments. 

For more background on CASL, see Canada’s New Anti-Spam Act – Raising the Bar for Online Business Communication and Online communications in Canada – Comparing Canada’s new Anti-Spam Law to the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act.

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Margot Patterson

About Margot Patterson

Margot Patterson is Counsel with Dentons' Intellectual Property, Communications Law, Competition Law, and Media, Entertainment and Sports practice groups, with a practice focused on media, brands and intellectual property.

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