By now, you have heard about Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). We have gone over many of the features of CASL in previous blog posts and FAQs.
Why is CASL coming about now and what is the new legislation intended to accomplish? CASL is thorough, and we want to go over the "why" and "how" of the legislation.
Want to learn more and ensure that you understand what CASL means for your business? Sign up for a free interactive CASL presentation from our expert compliance team.
How did CASL come about?
CASL amends the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act. CASL makes the penalties for sending spam much harsher.
What is the intent of CASL?
The intent of CASL is to deter spam within Canada. It is meant to protect people from messages with deceptive information or malicious software, as well as to give people more control over who they receive commercial electronic messages (CEMs) from.
Spam messages are not only annoying. They can also pose a threat to people's security because they can include false information, phishing links, spyware, and viruses. Fraud, financial loss, and identity theft are all unfortunate and very real consequences of spam emails. Spam and spam security measures also slow down email programs.
Spam also harms the reputation of legitimate businesses when spam senders use other trusted businesses' names to try to trick people into interacting with the message.
CASL is intended to improve confidence in electronic messaging by requiring consent, deter unsolicited messages by imposing substantial financial penalties and a private right of action and create a standard for information provided to reduce consumer confusion.
Who regulates CASL and the enforcement of penalties?
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is responsible for enforcing CASL. Penalties are more financially harsh for organizations than for individuals. The maximum penalty may not be enforced for the first violation of CASL. How penalties are enforced is up to CRTC.
Now that you know more about CASL, sign up for a free interactive CASL presentation from our expert compliance team.
