A Canadian federal law regulating commercial electronic messages, generally requiring express or implied consent before sending commercial email or messages to Canadian recipients, along with clear sender identification and an unsubscribe mechanism.
Why it matters
CASL is considered one of the stricter commercial email laws globally, with a narrower definition of acceptable implied consent than some other jurisdictions, meaning a marketing list built around a looser standard (like U.S. CAN-SPAM's opt-out approach) may not be automatically compliant for Canadian recipients without a genuinely separate review.
In a sentence
"We reviewed our email consent practices specifically against CASL before expanding into the Canadian market, since it's stricter than what we'd built our existing U.S. compliance around."
Related terms
- Often confused with: CAN-SPAM Act (Part Two, Category 8) — CASL is Canadian federal law with generally stricter consent requirements; CAN-SPAM is U.S. federal law built around an opt-out standard rather than requiring proactive consent).