Bill C-28 Legislation for Email Marketers

So you think that email marketing in the B2B sphere is going to be curtailed by Bill C-28, thankfully it won't be. Here is the pertinent information facts how this will effect business marketers.

Below are the relevant sections of the government of Canada's website, which are very reasonable.

Legitimate businesses that use email to market their products to Canadians should not be negatively impacted by this legislation. The consent regime is based on existing marketplace best practices and uses a consumer opt-in approach, which stipulates that businesses must get express consent or implied consent prior to sending commercial electronic messages. Apart from express consent, consent to receive commercial messages is implied:

1. where an existing business relationship exists with a customer or client, or
2. the electronic messages are relevant to the recipient's business, role, function or duties, and the electronic address has been conspicuously published or disclosed, without a statement that the person does not wish to receive unsolicited commercial electronic messages.

The Act does not prohibit the legitimate collection and compiling of lists of email addresses, provided the activity follows the rules regarding consent in the legislation and other principles that apply within federal and provincial privacy laws. Federal privacy legislation, the
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), sets out the rules for the collection, use and disclosure of such personal information, and these continue to apply under the new Act. Under PIPEDA, an organization may not collect personal information without the knowledge or consent of an individual unless the information is publicly available (according to regulations). In addition, the organization must state the purpose of the collection of that information.