Canadian Lawyer InHouse

13 canadianlaWyermag.com/inhouse june 2014 Q U I Z Ralph Kroman, partner, WeirFoulds LLP GO TO CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM TO WATCH A WEIRFOULDS LLP LAWYER TALK ABOUT THIS QUIZ. 1 You know that under the anti-spam law a three-year transitional phase applies commencing July 1 st so that some of the rules are more relaxed. Your company can prove that contacts in its database are customers who have bought goods or services over the last fi ve years. Will it be lawful to send CEMs to the contacts on July 1 st (assuming that the CEMs comply with form and content requirements)? (A) Yes (B) No (C) It depends 2 You are asked by someone at your company whether it will be lawful on July 1 st to send CEMs to friends. You answer: (A) Yes (B) No (C) It depends 3 Rather than sending out a request for consent to CEMs by way of e-mail, your company decides to conduct a telephone campaign to obtain express oral consent. A company employee phones various businesses and requests consent in accordance with the content requirements of the anti-spam rules. At the end of each call, your employee makes a record of a "yes" or "no" answer. Is this a "best practice?" (A) Yes (B) No 4 A representative of your company's sales team goes to a function, engages in some "chitchat" with numerous individuals, and obtains their business cards that include e-mail addresses. Your company supplies widgets and it is clear from the business cards that each individual buys widgets for their business. You are asked whether it will be lawful for the representative to send e-mails to the individuals on July 1 st in order to promote the company's widgets (assuming that the e-mails comply with form and content requirements for CEMs). You answer: (A) Yes (B) No (C) It depends 5 Your company's e-commerce web site is set up so that individuals, upon registration, check a box that they expressly agree to receipt of certain promotional e-mails. You review the relevant web page to determine anti-spam compliance as of July 1st, and it becomes perfectly clear that the web page clearly and simply set out the purposes for which consent is sought together with all of the contact information that is prescribed by the new rules. (By the way, you also check that all privacy law requirements have been addressed.) Should you put your feet up and relax on the basis that the web site is "good to go" for requesting express consents commencing July 1 st ? (A) Yes (B) No (C) It depends New anti-spam law looms ahead It is becoming well known that as of July 1 st Canada's new anti-spam law will apply to "commercial electronic messages," express or implied consent of the recipient will be required, and CEMs will need to comply with form and content requirements (including an unsubscribe mechanism). Essentially any electronic message that encourages participation in a commercial activity will be a CEM. The new law contains a myriad of complex provisions, and these questions will test your knowledge.

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