In December, 2010, the Federal Government of Canada passed “An Act to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act (S.C. 2010, c. 23).” This is often referred to as Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”) and relevant sections will come into force on July 1, 2014.

The purpose of CASL is to help protect Canadians from spam and other electronic threats to commerce. Under the legislation, registrants will be required to obtain express consent in a prescribed manner before sending any commercial electronic messages (“CEMs”) via an electronic (email, telephone, instant messaging, etc.) account.

The CASL regulations contains important information about exceptions and consent.

Although the legislation comes into force on July 1, 2014, under section 66 of CASL, consent to send CEMs is implied for the first 36 months where there is an existing relationship that includes the communication of CEMs. Businesses and people may use this time to seek express consent as required.

Information about CASL and its regulations, including useful resources intended to help Canadians comply with this legislation, can be found on the Government of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation website.