bubblebox:media
get in touch 604 357 7194

Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act 2010

NEW Canadian Anti-Spam law and how it affects you!

Canada has recently passed a new anti-spam law which will have an impact on any organization sending emails to and from Canada. FISA, The Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act (Bill C-28) establishes the requirements for marketing emails but also include SMS and IM. You can read it in its entirety by clicking here.

One of the main stipulations within the Act relates to requiring consent. It is prohibited to send, cause or permit to send to an electronic address a commercial message unless the person has consented to receiving it. The consent issued can be either ‘express’ or ‘implied’ and while ‘express’ consent or permission is self-explanatory (e.g. online sign-up), ‘implied’ consent is a little more complicated.

Consent can be implied where there is an existing business or non-business relationship between the sender and recipient, or the recipient has disclosed their address to the sender without indicating that they do not wish to receive messages, providing the messages are relevant to the person’s business, role or duties in an official capacity.

According to C-28, business relationships are in established when a customer purchases a product or service or enters into a contract. Additionally, if a company has an existing business relationship with a customer and then that company is sold, the new owners are considered to have an existing business relationship with that person. Non-business relationships exist where a customer conducts volunteer work, makes a donation or gift, or becomes a member of your organization. A non-business relationship is in effect for up to 2 years after it was first implied.

So that just about covers who you can send to, so it’s now important to know what information your emails must include in order to be compliant.

Key things to include and note are:

  • Your company contact information – name, address, telephone number and email.
  • Clear identification of the sender.
  • An obvious unsubscribe link or reply-to-email. Unsubscribe links must be valid for 60 days after the email is sent and unsubscribe requests must be processed within 10 business days.
  • Avoid the use of false or misleading information, e.g. the header.
Failure to comply with this legislation could land you with a $1millon fine for individuals and a $10million fine for organizations. Company officers and directors can be held personally liable if they knowingly infringe the law. C-28 will also amend the Canadian Compensation Act to prevent false or misleading representation of the sender or subject of the message, which would constitute a criminal offense.

Here are our recommendations to ensure you stay within the law and for identifying Canadian customers.

  • Ask subscribers and customers for their country when they sign-up or purchase. Make this mandatory.
  • Segment known Canadian domains such as .ca, Sympatico etc.
  • Obtain opt-in ‘express’ consent from your current ‘implied’ consent customers – you have 2 years to do this.
  • Consider a double opt-in process.
  • Keep proof of consent.
  • Include the required information – unsubscribe links, contact information etc.
  • Process your manual unsubscribe links within 10 days.
  • Avoid buying or renting email lists.
  • Use a third party/outsourced email provider.
  • Assume all your email addresses are Canadian as good practice.
For the full copy of C-28 click here.