As Marketers Scramble To Comply With Canada’s Anti-Spam Law, Other Countries Could Follow

As the implications of the recent Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) come to light, marketers on an international level are buzzing about potential compliance issues that their businesses need to overcome and the possibility that other countries may adopt similar legislation.  

The law — which passed in December 2010 and went into effect July 1 — is designed to protect Canadian citizens from spam. Marketers are unable to send email, social media and text messages without a recipient’s consent.

According to ANNUITAS’ Director of Marketing Erika Goldwater, there is a strong chance that other countries will adopt similar anti-spam laws, so marketers should put best practices in place now.

“With CASL, I really think that it is the tip of the iceberg,” said Goldwater in an interview with Demand Gen Report. “It’s a wakeup call; for so long marketers have not paid any attention to this sort of thing, and it will positively affect that they do business.”

The punishments for noncompliance with the new legislation is one of the strictest laws in the entire world, according to a recent blog post from BlueBird Strategies. If found noncompliant, financial penalties will be $1 million per person and $10 million per company for every individual violation.

Due to the strict repercussions, marketers are combing through their prospective buyer lists and their email deliverability processes to make sure they meet compliance. Of all the changes, here are several that are the most significant, according to Oracle Eloqua. This list includes:

• Businesses are no longer allowed to mail prospects that they do not have implicit consent (such as existing business relationships) or explicit consent to communicate with;
• Pre-checked boxes are now illegal, marketers cannot automatically opt their audience in to receiving their emails; and
• Global organizations must abide by this law when marketing to Canadian residents.

 

Goldwater and others suggest that marketers perform a communication audit. Businesses need to understand exactly how many of its prospects have been engaged with explicit consent and identify areas in their communications processes where restructuring is required.

Law Could Have Significant Impact On Third-Party Lists

If accepted widely, the law can have a negative effect on third-party list providers. In the business of collecting and selling a large quantity of contact information, these list providers will have to restructure their entire form process in order to meet compliance. While any business relationships prior to the law’s effective are considered implicit consent, there is still enough data that will take a great amount of time and resources in order to stay compliant.

“These third-party list providers will slowly become obsolete,” Goldwater added. “It’s a natural progression, and I feel like it’s a big step forward. If you’re a global company, you have to understand that your communications and deliverability has an impact — measurable or not.”

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