Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) covers commercial messages sent to or from Canada, including email. It's stricter than the US law, because you need someone's consent before you email them, as well as a way for them to opt out.
This is general guidance on how SplashSend helps, not legal advice.
Two kinds of consent
- Express consent: the person agreed, for example by signing up on a form that said who you are and that they can unsubscribe at any time. It lasts until they withdraw it.
- Implied consent: you have an existing business relationship. A purchase gives you two years from the date of the purchase, and an enquiry gives you six months. After that you need express consent to carry on.
A pre-ticked box doesn't count as consent, and neither does silence.
What SplashSend records
For people who join through a form, the API or your Shopify store, SplashSend records when and how they joined, and keeps a history of later changes, including after they unsubscribe. For people you add by hand or import, it records that you confirmed you had their permission. The evidence of their consent, and the date any implied consent began, is yours to keep.
To be sure people meant to sign up, turn on Confirm by email first for your forms in Collect. Nobody joins until they click the link in the email they're sent, and the link works for 48 hours. If you'd like a tick box as well, add the Consent tick-box block, and in Design check that Consent under Boxes is set to Tick box. The box starts unticked, and the form can't be sent until it's ticked.
Saying who you are
Each email has to say who it's from and show your postal address. Your sender name and the address in your footer cover that, once you've added your address in Setup → Business address. CASL also asks for another way to reach you that works for at least 60 days after you send. Replies reach your sender email, and the standard footer has a line giving that address for questions. If your footer doesn't have it, add your email address, website or phone number to the footer of your Header & Footer in Designs.
Unsubscribing
Every email has an unsubscribe link and the one-click button that email apps show. CASL asks for unsubscribes to take effect within ten business days, and for the link to work for at least 60 days. In SplashSend they take effect as soon as they're used, and the link works for as long as your account is open.
Keeping track of implied consent
SplashSend doesn't track when implied consent runs out. If you rely on it, note the date of each person's purchase or enquiry, for example in a date detail, and stop emailing them when their two years or six months are up.
What's yours to do
- Get consent before you email anyone, and know when any implied consent runs out.
- Keep the evidence for people you added by hand or imported.
- Act within ten business days on requests to stop that reach you another way, by unsubscribing the person in People.
- Never use a bought list, or addresses collected from websites. CASL forbids both, and so do our Terms.
Penalties
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) can impose penalties of up to $1,000,000 per violation on an individual, and up to $10,000,000 on a business.