Rogers Media Inc. (Rogers) recently paid $200,000 as part of a settlement involving the CRTC for Rogers alleged violations of Canadas anti-spam legislation (CASL).
The CASL requirements about Commercial Electronic Messages (CEMs) have been the law since July 1, 2014.
Rogers is not the first to be fined. Porter Airlines paid a significant penalty earlier ($150,000). A company called Compu-Finder paid a very significant $1.1 million earlier for spamming businesses.
The CRTC alleged that Rogers had:
- sent CEMs either containing an unsubscribe mechanism that did not enable the person to indicate their wish to no longer receive messages, or that was not able to be readily performed;
- sent CEMs for which the unsubscribe mechanism did not contain an electronic address that was valid for the required minimum of 60 days after the message was sent; and
- failed to give effect to unsubscribe requests within the required 10 business days.
Rogers settled perhaps wisely.
Rogers agreed to other remedial measures, too, such as updating and implementing a better internal compliance policy for spamming, reviewing and revising its written policies, developing training programs and registering and tracking all complaints related to CEMs and their resolution.
Individuals are not immune for anti-spamming law in Canada. Up to $1,000,000 per infraction for individuals and up to $10,000,000 per infraction for corporations.
CASL is administered through a complaints-based system and the CRTC provides a Spam Reporting Centre for the submission of complaints.
Individuals and businesses utilizing CEMs should review the requirements of the CASL to ensure they are complying with the legislation.
