The Board’s commitment to Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL)
As an organization who understands the importance of relationships, the Toronto Region Board of Trade is committed to ensuring that it is in full compliance with CASL.
Under this legislation, which came into effect on July 1, 2014, businesses are only able to send commercial electronic messages (*CEMs) to persons they have an existing business, personal or family relationship with (constituting “implied consent”) OR from whom they have “express consent”.
What this means for our Members
As the legislation outlines, being a Member-based organization, the Board is legally able to communicate with our Members via CEMs, as this constitutes “implied consent”.
Under the law, the Board Considers Existing Relationships to be:
- Current Members of the Toronto Region Board of Trade
- Clear connection between individual and organization (Board member, committee member, etc.)
- Board product and/or event ticket purchasers within the past 2 years
Under the law, The Board Requires Express Consent From:
- Non-Members
- Sales/acquisition leads
- Lapsed Members with no business transaction over past 24 months
We have taken the following steps to ensure our compliance with CASL, particularly where “express consent” is required:
- Obtaining “express consent” from all non-Member contacts of the Board to send CEMs
- Providing an “unsubscribe” option on all CEMs the Board sends to contacts
- Processing unsubscribes within 10 business days of request
- Only contacting non-Members via CEM who have requested information from us or initiated a business transaction/relationship with us within the last two years
- Implementing internal processes to ensure we are in compliance with the new law
Additional Information
What is a CEM?
- Any message that entices someone to buy something
- Includes emails, texts, instant messages and social network messages
Exemptions to Express Consent
- Between organizations that have a relationship
- To satisfy a complaint
- Respond to an inquiry (response must be sent within six months of original inquiry)
- To satisfy a legal obligation