This article explains the basics of CASL compliance.

Much like the American CAN-SPAM laws, CASL stands for Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation and applies to commercial messages sent to any Canadian citizen’s email address. It went into effect on July 1, 2014 and remains in effect to this day.

How CASL Differs From CAN-SPAM

For the United States, CAN-SPAM laws dictate that your commercial message must include a physical address and also must provide an opportunity to opt out of receiving emails, but it does not require explicit or implied consent in order to send an email. Whereas in most cases, CASL requires explicit, documented consent before you send.

Explicit consent exists when a person is clearly given an option to opt in to receive email messages and actively, directly gives that consent. Consent can also be implied in some situations with CASL. For example, if a contact continues purchasing from your company, continues using your services in some way, or continues subscribing to your magazine, consent to send messages can be implied. This implied consent is valid for two years after the subscription ends, or services have been rendered or purchased. If explicit consent hasn’t been given within those two years, you must discontinue email messaging.

There are also some situations that don’t require explicit or implied consent. An example of this is when it’s pertinent to the contact’s business or it’s reasonable for them to expect to be contacted by you — for instance, a dentist who publishes their email on their website could reasonably expect to receive emails from someone who sells dental equipment. In these cases, you may communicate with them via email for a period of two years. Again, if explicit consent or implied consent is not obtained in that time, you must discontinue email messaging.

It’s Up to You to Be CASL Compliant

Our Anti-Spam Policy keeps us compliant with CAN-SPAM laws, but you may eventually need to do a little more on your own to comply with CASL. This is because we’re more accepting of “implied consent” — like when someone provides their email address, but there’s no “I opt-in to receive…” language. We accept that if they’ve provided their email address to you, it’s reasonable to assume consent to receive email from you exists.

In many cases, CASL disagrees. Ultimately, it’s your list collection practices that determine whether or not you’re compliant with CASL. We arm you with useful features like signup forms, segments, campaign templates for a welcome series, and our opt-in confirmation contact field to help you come into compliance and stay there. It’s always up to you to build your list in a compliant way to begin with. We don’t collect IP address information, so if your contact doesn’t click the opt-in confirmation link, we can’t guarantee explicit consent will be recognized.

In full transparency, we expect you to be CASL compliant. We are constantly monitoring abuse complaints for our network of IPs and will reach out to any customer who receives complaints related to CASL compliance. But don’t worry, if you hear from us on that front, we’ll come into that conversation ready to help.

Segment Canadian Contacts in Your Audience

If you are unsure if you have Canadian contacts in your audience, you can create a segment in your account to find all email addresses ending in .ca, or by finding Canadian physical addresses if you collect that information. After you locate your Canadian contacts, send them a subscriber re-engagement campaign which will give them the option to confirm their opt-in, thus making you CASL compliant. Keep in mind that if someone disputes the opt-in, the government will ask you for at least the timestamp for the confirmation of the subscription.

The Bottom Line of Permission-Based Marketing

If you’re asking people for their email address, make sure they know what kind of emails they’ll receive, when they’ll receive it, and from whom they’ll be receiving it. If you can show that the point of email address collection explicitly defines how that email will be used and that the member explicitly asked to receive your emails, you should be CASL compliant. If it doesn’t, or there’s some other problem with your collection, CASL allows for substantial per-recipient penalties, both from the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission as well as private action by recipients.