CASL
Canada's anti-spam law, which generally requires consent before commercial email and mandates clear identification and a working unsubscribe.
CASL, Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, governs commercial electronic messages sent to recipients in Canada. It is stricter than US law: where the CAN-SPAM Act permits cold email by default, CASL is consent-first, generally requiring express or implied consent before a commercial message is sent. Penalties can reach millions of dollars per violation, so it deserves real attention for any program reaching Canadian buyers.
Why it matters for outbound
CASL changes how a program approaches Canada. Implied consent can exist, for example through an existing business relationship or a contact who has published a business address without restriction, but the bar is higher and the documentation burden is real. Getting it wrong is not just a compliance risk; messages that trigger complaints damage sender reputation and deliverability for the whole sending program, not only the Canadian segment.
Core obligations
- Consent, express or implied, before sending a commercial message
- Clear identification of who is sending and how to reach them
- A working unsubscribe mechanism honored promptly
- Records that demonstrate the basis for contacting each recipient
How we approach it
As a managed agency, we segment Canadian audiences and apply CASL's consent and identification rules to them specifically, rather than treating all geographies the same. Unsubscribes and refusals route into a permanent suppression list so no contact is reached against their wishes. This regional discipline is part of our data and list building practice, alongside GDPR for Europe and CAN-SPAM for the US.
From definitions to pipeline
Outword turns outbound theory into a running motion. Book a call to see what that looks like for your team.