Canadian CRTC Issues Compliance and Enforcement Information Bulletins

Some of the "highlights" include:

• The CRTC has confirmed that "pre-checked" consent boxes will not be an acceptable means of obtaining express consent. Whatever mechanism is used to obtain express consent must involve the consumer making a positive indication of their consent, not merely neglecting to "opt out".

• The CRTC has given some examples of the type of "readily performed" unsubscribe mechanism that will satisfy Section 3 of the Regulations. In general, such unsubscribe mechanisms must be clear and easy to use in whatever medium is being used to communicate with the consumer.

• The CRTC has made it clear that "specific and separate consent" at be obtained for each of the acts listed in Sections 6 to 8 of Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL). As a result, a separate check box or icon must be provided for each different type of consent that is being obtained, and such consents cannot be combined with each other or included in a more general consent provided by the consumer.

We are still waiting for Industry Canada to circulate its most recent draft regulations, which do not appear to be imminent. While all indications still are that CASL will come into force sometime in 2013, no one at the CRTC or Industry Canada is willing to commit to any estimate of exactly when this might be.

Authored by Mark Hayes.