As of July 1, 2014, the world’s toughest anti-spam legislation goes into effect in Canada and whether you live in this country or not, chances are good that if you’re sending out an e-newsletter (or other commercial electronic messaging), it will affect you. 
According to a blog post at Wellman Wilson, an Ottawa social media consulting firm, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) applies to “all commercial electronic messages (including emails, texts, audio, video and may even apply to private messages on social media) for any organization that:
- is located in Canada,
- uses an email provider based in Canada,
- or have recipients that live in Canada (or an email address that ends in .ca).”
And if you’re thinking, “Um, hold on a second…that sounds like just about everyone,” you’re right. It is. Which is why you needed to read this.
But before you start hyperventilating (or tearing up your Canadian email list), let me reassure you. Because compliance isn’t that difficult, and Wellman Wilson outlines everything you need to know in their full blog post — in easy-to-understand-and-follow language. Scout’s honour. 😉
In fact, if you use an app such as Mailchimp, you may find that you already have all the components in place (as I did). But do double-check to make sure, because failure to comply with CASL can result in fines of up to $1,000 for an individual or $10,000 for a company…per incident.
Questions? Something to add? Leave me a comment below! And please share this post widely with your author friends so their butts are covered, too. They really will thank you for it. 🙂
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