REGULAR READERS of this column will remember that several years ago, when Canada’s anti-spam legislation (generally referred to as CASL) came into effect, I predicted it was overly broad and would have a negative effect on economic activity. Well, I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but when you look at the recent CASL enforcement efforts you just have to shake your head.
Thankfully, on June 7, the federal government announced that CASL’s private right of action (PRA) provisions would not come into effect on July 1, 2017. This lifted what would have been a very dark cloud hanging over our economy, although we may not be completely out of the woods yet; the government has sent the PRA to a parliamentary committee for review, so it’s still too early to tell what we will get by way of a PRA — and of course, we are still stuck with CRTC enforcement of CASL, regardless of the PRA.
I act for a number of early-stage Silicon Valley companies when they choose Canada as their first jurisdiction of expansion outside of the US. These businesses are careful to comply with the US anti-spam legislation; but when they hear about the CASL regime in Canada, they will often skip Canada altogether, or will not bring their full business model to our country.
Conversely, when I act for Canadian tech start-ups in the e-commerce space, and they learn about the hurdles CASL presents — well, you guessed it, a number of them shift certain economic activity and the jobs that go with it down to the United States. Sigh.
George S. Takach – Lexpert Magazine – August 17, 2017.
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