From the Canadian Chamber of Commerce

Canadian anti-spam legislation and the corresponding regulations have taken a “ban-all” approach to regulating commercial electronic messages (CEMs). All emails, SMS texts, social media sent in a commercial context are captured. The legislation will obligate the sender to obtain consent from the receiver prior to sending a CEM. That consent may not be obtained by sending a CEM. The definitions for consent are quite specific and are more demanding than existing privacy legislation. The legislation also requires an opt-out mechanism in all CEMs which must be backstopped with a database with the details of all business/personal relationships and removals of consent.

The administrative penalties for non-compliance are excessive. The rules would also provide powers for private parties to sue under the legislation.

The broad scope of CASL means that it will impact every single business, association, club, charitable organization and foundation that conducts activities in Canada. Without significant modifications and exceptions, this legislation will impede commercial speech, an essential ingredient of market competitiveness and lead to reduced competition and higher prices.

This legislation will also impose massive compliance costs on businesses that may be ill-equipped to undertake them and will result in economic hardship for both business and not-for-profit organizations. The result will be a corresponding negative impact on local economies.

In its current form, these regulations will impede innovation and competitiveness by needlessly channelling resources away from new ventures and opportunities and by slowing the regular updating of computer software and systems. Ultimately, this legislation and the regulations in their current form will not solve the problem of nuisance/fraudulent messages or of nuisance/malicious software, which are generally initiated outside the jurisdictional reach of the CRTC, the agency tasked with enforcement of the CASL.

What you can do?

1) Get informed about the impact of the legislation and regulations. Information about anti-spam can be found on the industry Canada Website here: Fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/h_00211.html

2) Express your concern about how this legislation will impact your organization and make suggestions about improvements to the regulations that will lessen the impact on your organization. Additional details regarding the impact of this legislation, including recommended changes, will be posted on the Canadian Chamber of Commerce website in the coming days (please check here: Chamber.ca/index.php/en/from-the-top/C163/policy-alert-anti-spam-legislation). Comments to Industry Canada on the proposed regulations must be received by February 5, 2013 and can be submitted electronically to Industry Canada: bruce.wallace@ic.gc.ca.

3) Send a letter to your local MP, expressing your concerns and the impact this will have on your organization. To find contact information for your local MP, please visit the Parliamentary website here: Parl.gc.ca/SenatorsMembers.aspx?Language=E

4) Distribute this alert to those in your network and encourage them to take this same course of action.

5) Keep the Canadian Chamber informed about your actions by advising our Policy Director for this issue, Scott Smith at ssmith@chamber.ca. The more we know about what steps our members take, the stronger our own lobby will be.