Rogers Media Fined $200,000 Over Anti-Spam Act Violation

Rogers Media recently acquiesced with paying fine valuing $200,000 to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) because it reportedly distributed unwanted electronic mail advertisements, published torontosun.com dated November 20, 2015.

Under a new anti-spam legislation in Canada which was implemented in 2014, the fine levying took place. The law legislates that any Canadian company sending an unsolicited e-mail for the first time would be regarded as a violator of the law.

According to CRTC, alleged infringements occurred between July 2014 and July 2015 the time e-mails coming to end-users contained an "unsubscribe" button which would not work effectively.

The Commission's allegations further state that Rogers Media, a Rogers Communications arm, didn't give credit to the e-mail recipients' unsubscribe requests in ten business days.

The undertaking includes that Rogers Media will enhance the present compliance program it has imbibed for making sure that its operations wholly comply with Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL).

The Department of National Defense (DND), however, states that Rogers Media gave whole cooperation to CRTC when investigation was going on. Canadianunderwriter.ca reported this, November 20, 2015.

According to Manon Bombardier, Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer of CRTC, companies should honor Canadians' wishes if the latter doesn't want to allow commercial e-mail into their inbox, while should also simplify the unsubscribe procedure for them. Canadianunderwriter.ca reported this, November 20, 2015.

Bombardier additionally stated that CRTC was content with Rogers Media Inc.'s enforcement of the necessary alterations towards its compliance with CASL. This most recent declaration is directly related to the information which the citizens of Canada provided, and the Commission would keep on encouraging them for informing about dubious infringements to the centre for reporting spam.

As Canadian Anti-Spam Law got implemented 1st July 2014, implementation initiatives have led to about $400,000 in payments of more undertakings while issuance of monetary fines amounted to $1.1m.

With Rogers Media being the fourth entity to pay fine within the purview of the anti-spam law in 2015, the others are Compu-Finder a corporate training company as the first to pay $1.1m fine, Porter Airlines - fined $150,000 and PlentyOfFish an Internet dating website - fined $48,000.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/4/2015