Million dollar spam fine sends message to CASL fencesitters
It remains to be seen if Compu-Finder will get the message; a spokesperson was unavailable for comment. It appears though that the rest of the country is standing up and taking notice, which may have been the CRTC’s goal with such a heavy fine as the first out of the gate.
It certainly took Robert Burko by surprise. Burko, the president of Toronto-based marketing firm Elite Email and an ITBusiness.ca community blogger, said he figured they’d fire a few warning shots before bringing out the big guns. It appears to him, though, that Compu-Finder was a particularly egregious offender that ignored CRTC requests to follow the rules.
“They probably brought this on themselves. It seems they didn’t even try to comply with the law,” said Burko. “If it’s going to be a law that’s going to have any teeth and be effective we needed some evidence it’s going to be taken seriously. Now we know it will be. Before it was an abstract thing. Now that we know they’ll actually pursue it, it raises the stakes.”
While the companies that took immediate action on CASL compliance will be breathing a sigh of relief, Burko said those that were taking a wait and see approach will now likely wise up and follow the regulations to a tee. As for Compu-Finder, he thinks they’re an outlier and aren’t indicative of most e-mail marketers in Canada.
“On the whole, legitimate businesses weren’t spamming their customers in the first place,” said Burko. “Spamming has never been good business. They have a brand worth protecting.”
Another ITBusiness.ca community blogger, Aluvion Law founder Monica Goyal, also admitted surprise at the heavy dollar amount for the first fine under CASL. She said there was some uncertainty in the legal community around CASL because of the vagueness of the regulations and the broadness of some of the provisions. According to the coverage though, she said it would appear the CRTC has strong grounds against Compu-Find.
“The law is meant to stop spammers and spamming, and this seems to be a good application of the law,” said Goyal.
What’s unclear though is how the fine was arrived at – the act says it’s based on the number of complaints, but a specific figure for complaints has not been provided. As for legitimate businesses, she said as long as they’re making a good-faith effort at CASL compliance they probably don’t need to worry about a heavy fine on the level of that against Compu-Finder.
“It seems people had even tried to call (Compufinder to unsubscribe) but once you’re on their list they just kept sending,” said Goyal. “This is different from a lot of business sending emails about promotions on a quarterly basis and have the ability to unsubscribe and have made legitimate efforts to have people’s consent.”