Uh O Canada: 5 ways a new anti-spam law may be different than CAN-SPAM
Posted by Rob Ropars on June 1st, 2009
By now you’ve probably heard that on April 24, the Canadian government introduced a bill that would serve as Canada’s answer to the US CAN-SPAM Act. Known officially as the “Electronic Commerce Protection Act” (herein ECPA), it strives to establish new legislation around commercial email communications, including rules for opt-in and opt-out procedures, sender identification, and consumer privacy. This process is still in flux so it’s best to monitor the situation and wait for the final provisions before acting. That said, the early details do highlight at least five key differences between ECPA and CAN-SPAM.
Taken at first glance, this bill is both potentially stricter than CAN-SPAM and somewhat ambiguous in some of the areas it covers. Let’s take a look…
Requires advance permission to send commercial email
One area of ambiguity is a reference to allowing messages to be sent if “implied consent” exists between the sender and the recipient during the 18 months prior to the email. If you’re maintaining a strict opt-in/permission list, then this shouldn’t be an issue. Otherwise there may be some question about whether you can email specific people.
CAN-SPAM differs in that technically the law doesn’t outlaw one unsolicited message. It essentially allows anyone to mail anyone else at least once (as long as you include and honor any opt-out requests). Some ESPs (including SubscriberMail) take a more stringent stance (more in line with ECPA) requiring clients to only send to permission lists. Assuming you and/or your ESP are following best practices and only sending permission-based emails, then you’re ECPA-compliant already.
