CANADA’S TOUGH NEW ANTI-SPAM LEGISLATION KICKS IN SOON
By now, every business owner in Canada likely has some awareness of the upcoming federal anti-spam legislation that takes effect on July 1 of this year. This legislation, which goes by the increasingly familiar acronym CASL, will have a significant impact on your business. Understanding the legislation and ensuring you’re taking the necessary steps to ensure compliance should be at the top of your to-do list.
Simply put, this new legislation is the toughest anti-spam legislation in the world. It will apply to any commercial electronic message (CEM) sent from or to a computer in Canada, whether they are sent to individuals or businesses. It applies not just to email, but to any electronic communication, including SMS (text) messages and social media activities.
Consent is critical
The penalties for non-compliance are dramatic. Fines of up to $1,000,000 for individuals and $10,000,000 for businesses provide plenty of incentive to get this right.
And getting it right will be complicated. The devil is definitely in the details. You will need to include opt-in language that creates an opportunity to obtain consent from everyone you want to be communicating with, and while the language itself is not complicated, making sure you get it in front of everyone who needs it will be.
You need to add opt-out language and links to all your electronic communications, and make sure those links have the intended function. In other words, once someone clicks on your opt-out link, you need to ensure their consent status is updated in your database and that no further electronic communications are sent. While the law is not yet in force, it’s easy to imagine that the surefire way to generate a complaint is to fail to act on an opt-out request.
There will be a significant training requirement to get staff up to speed on the law and how they must adjust their practices in communicating with customers. And of course you need to have ongoing training in place for new staff.
You will also need to speak to your CRM provider, DMS provider and other vendors to make the programming changes that will ensure your systems won’t send to a particular name or names unless the consent is recorded and up to date.
Happily, there are great resources out there to help you understand and direct your actions.
The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) put out a detailed memo on April 30 to their dealer members that provides a very good overview of the law. It explains key aspects of the legislation in laymen’s terms and should leave you with a solid grounding from which to take next steps. I highly recommend you get a copy and read it.
Training sessions
Canadian auto dealer magazine is partnering with SCI MarketView and the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright to offer three CASL training sessions. Two locations (Toronto and Calgary) will be offered in English. One session in Montreal will be in French.
We feel so strongly that about the need to prepare for CASL that we jumped at the chance to work with SCI and Norton Rose Fulbright in bringing you these sessions. We are also very excited that these sessions make use of our new live event video capabilities. If you can’t make it to the sessions in person, you can watch the Toronto and Montreal sessions live online. Please go to www.scimarketview.ca/casl for more info, and check out the Navigating CASL ad on page 44.
Find out what your OEM is offering. We know a number of them have prepared (or are preparing) CASL training for their dealers. Using these and other resources, you should be able to get your understanding up to speed quickly and effectively.
Please bear in mind, nothing is a substitute for talking to your own legal counsel with respect to CASL. While the law is the same for everyone, every dealership’s communications mix and software mix is different. As you dive into the details, you’ll want to be sure you have legal input into your individual circumstances, and the steps you’ve taken.
