Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation

Last week, Canada's new Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) came into effect. The law requires companies to businesses and organizations to comply in the areas of text, email and social media. Failure to comply can result in fines of up to $10 million.

1. Consent - a company must seek consent from a user

2. Identification - a company must clearly identify themselves

3. Unsubscribe - a company must offer a means for users to remove themselves.

MailChimp has offered guidance to its clients, noting that there is a 3 year transition period.

Will this legislation be effective? And for who? 

On one hand, consumers - fed up with the barrage of emails received daily from a range of companies  - should at least see some inbox impact. On the other hand, digital marketers may stand to lose. With hefty fines, organizations will want to ensure compliance. The process will likely result in a loss of consumer contacts - given that most consents to communicate are buried in lengthy terms of service contracts that nobody really reads anyway. That being said, this law only applies to Canadian organizations. In an age of global e-commerce, CASL may not be as effective as the Canadian Government hopes.

While corporations will complain that this is yet another intrusion by government into economic affairs creating more red tape and hoops to jump through - they may actually stand to benefit from a paired down list of consumers who will actually want to be communicated with. Failing that, CASL should hopefully - from a consumer perspective - at least reduce the number of unwanted emails. Either way, this is a challenge digital marketers will have to take on as Canada joins the ranks of the UK, Australia and others in debating and implementing increasing protections for consumers in an age of spam. 

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/canada-s-anti-spam-legislation-targets-unwanted-emails-1.2693887