CRTC Issues First Fine For Spamming: $1.1 Million

The first phase of the new Canada Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), which governs commercial electronic messaging (CEM), came into force on July 1st, 2014. On March 5, 2015, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued the first penalty under CASL for spamming Canadians – and it is substantial.

A penalty of $1.1 million was issued against Québec corporate training provider Compu-Finder for four violations of CASL. The CRTC found that Compu-Finder sent e-mails promoting its training program and courses to consumers without their consent. In addition, the unsubscribe mechanism in the e-mails (a CASL requirement) did not function properly, resulting in recipients continuing to receive e-mails after having unsubscribed.

Compu-Finder was flagged for investigation by the CRTC after being linked to over a quarter of the complaints relating to corporate training services received through the Spam Reporting Centre. Compu-Finder has 30 days to contest the fine.

The second phase of CASL, which prohibits the installation of computer programs in the course of a commercial activity without consent (i.e. malware, spyware, etc.), came into force on January 15, 2015 (for prior reporting on CASL software provisions in E-TIPS® Newsletter, see here andhere).

For general information on CASL, see prior reports in E-TIPS® Newsletter,here, here, and here.

For news reports on the Compu-Finder CRTC decision, see:

CBC: http://tinyurl.com/mnrgx8m

Toronto Star: http://tinyurl.com/q5729jz