Lead generation and the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL)
Revised June 16, 2014
The Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL) takes effect July 1, 2014. This document attempts to spell out some of the basics where lead generation is concerned, though it is no substitute for legal advice.
In short, CASL specifies that in order to send mass e-mail to Canadian e-mail addresses, the sending organization must have express consent from the recipient in order to send that e-mail. (The law only applies to mass e-mail, not individual one-on-one messages.)
That means the recipient must have provided his or her e-mail address by either voluntarily filling out a form online to the company or organization sending that email, or provided their e-mail address over the telephone (or in person). (If there is a checkbox online, it cannot be pre-checked.)
Like the U.S. CAN-SPAM law, the sending organization’s physical mailing address should be on the bottom of every mass e-mail as well as on the Web site where e-mail subscribers sign up. Also like CAN-SPAM, there must be an unsubscribe link on all mailings, including the ability to opt out of all future mailings.
Unlike the U.S. law, the Canadian law requires that the recipient must expressly consent to receive your messages. An implied consent via an existing business relationship, which under the U.S. law is sufficient, doesn’t cut it under the Canadian law.
PMMI Media Group (PMG) is in full compliance with CASL with regard to its own mailings. Our e-mail database is 100% opt-in—that is, every single e-mail address in our database was provided by the recipient, either online or via a phone call when renewing a magazine subscription. We also are fully compliant with CAN-SPAM, and with the European privacy directive.
However, the act of lead generation from a media company like PMG or any other media partner raises questions about how you should handle contacts with Canadian e-mail addresses who either click on your e-mail advertising or e-blasts or download a Playbook.
Strictly speaking, according to the new Canadian law, you may not send e-mail to Canadian contacts you receive from PMG as part of your lead generation programs since the act of clicking on an ad (or downloading a playbook) is not considered an act of consent in the eyes of the Canadian Law. This has also been true, by the way, for several years with regard to the European privacy law.
Thus, if you are seeking strictly 100% compliance, you should not send e-mail to contacts in Canada or the European Union that you receive through digital lead-gen programs from PMG and other partners. We provide these names to you for informational purposes only.
However, what we have seen is that the European law hasn’t really stopped many of our advertisers from sending e-mail to European leads. Their thinking is that so long as that email is relevant (and typically it is, since it’s an industry email and both the sender and receiver are in the industry), it will be welcome, or at least, not unwelcome. That’s in contrast to e-mails about Viagra, mortgage loans, cross-border pharmacies, and schemes involving Nigerian government officials with a few million dollars of covert cash in need of a temporary home. Typically the Canadian and European laws were designed with the latter e-mails in mind.
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It’s up to your company how to proceed, of course. Though we cannot and will not be held liable for any action you take with names we provide, we believe every customer must balance responsible and sensible mailing
practices with compliance concerns to determine the best strategy going forward. There is no silver bullet, unfortunately.
If you don’t wish to take any chances, you can request that PMG block all Canadian and E.U. e-mail addresses from being sent to you. (You should make the same request to all other lead generation sources.) Note that your lead generation efforts will be diminished accordingly.
Please note, under the Canadian law, you may send e-mail blasts to your own customer lists, but you now must obtain express consent from people on your list in order to do so. Unlike the U.S. CAN-SPAM law, an existing business relationship that implies consent is not sufficient under CASL. Recipients must expressly opt in to your list through some positive action.
Although the law will be enforced as of July 1st, 2014, you do have a 3-year grace period for customers with whom you have an existing business relationship. So essentially, you have until June 30, 2017 to obtain “express consent” from customers. For recipients that have already opted-in to your list, no further action is needed.
Note: Although CASL applies to mass email communications, and in theory does not impact the one-on-one communications you exchange with customers and prospects, a note of caution is warranted.
Can your sales people follow up with Canadian leads obtained through PMG since it’s one-to-one email? Unfortunately, that is far from clear. According to one interpretation of the law, if you got a card from a prospect at a trade show and followed up via email, it could be interpreted as a violation, even though that is one-to-one e-mail, and is not a mass e-mail. Absurd, yes, but that’s one possible interpretation according to some legal experts. Part of the issue is that the law is written to be so broad and so protective of the consumer’s inbox that there is a lot of room for interpretation and it depends on which side you are on how you interpret it.
Important note if PMMI Media Group hosts YOURe-mail list
Some customers provide us their e-mail lists so that we can send mailings to their list in addition to ours. This is common for custom programs particularly. In such circumstances, since we did not obtain express (or even implied) consent from recipients on your list that didn’t originate with us, we cannot send to those addresses.
For more information
Please see the Canadian government’s compliance Web site: