Canada. ePrivacy / marketing. Act
CASLAn 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 (Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation)
Partially in force
§1Summary
- Synopsis
Prohibits sending commercial electronic messages without express or implied consent, requires sender identification and a working unsubscribe mechanism, and restricts installing software or altering transmission data without consent.
- Key themes
- Unique features
Opt-in model stricter than US CAN-SPAM; applies to any message sent to or accessed from a computer system in Canada; directors and officers can be personally liable.
- SaaS relevance
SaaS marketing emails, in-app messages and transactional-plus-promotional messages to Canadian recipients must meet consent, ID and unsubscribe rules; auto-updating software installs also caught.
§2Obligations
- Extraterritorial
- Yes
- Breach notification
- None
- DPO
- No
- Maximum penalty
- AMPs up to CAD 10m per violation (organisations) / CAD 1m (individuals)
§3Dates
- Key dates
- Adopted
- In force
- Software installation rules from 2015-01-15; transitional implied consent ended 2017-07-01; private right of action suspended indefinitely (2017)
§4Text and authority
- Text
- Authoritative text laws-lois.justice.gc.ca
- Authority
- Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC); Competition Bureau; OPC
§5Where it applies
- Domestic law of
- Canada
- Also applies in
§6Sources and verification
- Sources consulted
- Verification
High confidence.
Private right of action (ss.47-51) never brought into force.