CASL in Canada Coming into Force from Next Year

Canada is all set to launch one of the world's most rigid anti-spam laws better known as Canadian anti-spam Law or CASL on 1st July, 2014 to fight spammers clogging up inboxes of Internauts, reported Itnews.com.au on 5th December, 2013.

CASL bans the gathering of e-mail ids for mass mailing (or spamming) purposes and tries to protect Internauts from the compilation of personal details by companies. Penalties to the tune of C$1Mn for individuals and C$10Mn for firms can be imposed under CASL.

However the law allows companies to send business-related messages internally or to another business. Also emails sent as part of a product recall in response to an inquiry by customer or as a result of a referral may also be allowed.

And the law will not change the way charities are currently allowed to reach to potential donors.

Globalnews.ca reported on 5th December, 2013 quoting James Moore, Industry Minister, as saying "But the law will ban the most deceptive forms of spam like identity theft, phishing and spyware".

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre, a non-profit public interest law office in Canada, says that the legislation will "mark a new era in consumer's and citizen's use of Internet to communicate with businesses".

Globalnews.ca published a statement on 5th December, 2013 quoting John Lawford, Executive Director of the Public interest Advocacy Centre as saying "Consumers and citizens will now be able to decide better for themselves whether and how they will engage with companies using electronic means for commercial messages".

But still there are some pundits who are criticizing the new regulations (or law) and saying that it has not addressed all concerns.

Michael Fekete, Partner and Corporate Lawyer of Osler in Toronto, Canada highlighting the implications of anti-spam Regime on Marketing Initiatives in Canada said that the regulations on computer programs could hamper technology in Canada. Theglobeandmail.com published news on 4th December, 2013 quoting Michael Fekete as saying "The law goes further to regulate a broad scope of activities than spam or spyware laws in other jurisdiction. Given that technology is developed for a global marketplace and software is increasing in all devices out of which many are connected wirelessly, there are concerns that the legislation could obstruct the ability to update existing programs".

» SPAMfighter News - 12/13/2013