Confused about CASL? Read on…
By Diane Wolf
CASL stands for Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, and it is important that you understand how it affects you and your business in terms of commercial electronic messages (CEMs). These may include emails, text messages, and some social media posts. The legislation came into effect in stages over the last several years, but here is a summary of what you need to know.
Please note the C in CEM stands for Commercial! This is a message intended to solicit business. The legislation does not apply to messages you send to provide information, or to greet clients. If someone has given you the email address of someone they are referring you to, you are also allowed to send one message to that person, ensuring that it is clear that they can unsubscribe from receiving further messages. You must also give the full name of the person who referred you. For example, if our President told me that you might be interested in working with me, I could email you with the following subject line: “Tracey Ormond recommended I contact you”.
You may not send CEMs to people without their consent. It gets tricky though because there is implied consent in some cases. For our purposes, you MAY send CEMs to other WBN members, but you must be sure to include an option for them to unsubscribe to avoid receiving further messages. You must keep track of who has unsubscribed so that if you download a new member list, you must remove anyone who has previously unsubscribed.