What Your Club Needs to Know About the New Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL)
Canada's new anti-spam legislation came into effect on July 1, 2014. The new legislation requires all clubs meet requirements of consent when emailing both members and non-members alike. In other words: your club must adhere to the anti-spam legislation even when using Uplifter’s email tool to email current club members.
IMPORTANT CHANGES TO UPLIFTER’S EMAIL TOOL
In an effort to ensure our clubs comply with this act, the Uplifter email tool will now require you to select a season and then choose from one of three pre-defined mailing lists before proceeding with emailing your members. Please ensure you select a season from within the last 2 years in order to maintain compliance with the new legislation.
How to Use OUR “Member Electronic Message Lists”
There are three basic mailing lists in Uplifter that will be used when communicating via email through Uplifter to your members:
LIST #1: Transaction & Service Notifications
This list is used to send your members copies of registration invoices, automated waitlist notifications and any factual messages directly related to the specific delivery of any club products. For example, scheduling, rescheduling or cancellation of a class or class location. NOTE: Currently, members cannot opt-out of receiving these messages and they are exempted from the legislation as per section 6 paragraph (6)(b) and paragraph (6)(d).
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-1.6/page-2.html#h-6):
(6) Paragraph (1)(a) does not apply to a commercial electronic message that solely
(a) provides a quote or estimate for the supply of a product, goods, a service, land or an interest or right in land, if the quote or estimate was requested by the person to whom the message is sent;
(b) facilitates, completes or confirms a commercial transaction that the person to whom the message is sent previously agreed to enter into with the person who sent the message or the person — if different — on whose behalf it is sent;
...
(d) provides notification of factual information about
(i) the ongoing use or ongoing purchase by the person to whom the message is sent of a product, goods or a service offered under a subscription, membership, account, loan or similar relationship by the person who sent the message or the person — if different — on whose behalf it is sent, or
(ii) the ongoing subscription, membership, account, loan or similar relationship of the person to whom the message is sent;
LIST #2: Member Information Messages
This email mailing list is used to provide factual information and details to your members regarding their ongoing subscription or membership account. For example, a club AGM notice or membership expiry notice. Members will be able to opt out of receiving these messages, but the option will be checked on as a default upon by creating a new member account. These messages are also exempted from the prohibition and do not require express consent as per section 6 paragraph (6)(d)(ii) as long as they contain solely factual information (http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-1.6/page-2.html#h-6).
LIST #3: News, Upcoming Program & Registration Information
These messages provide up-to-date news about your club’s organization, programs and registration. For example, upcoming shows or galas, competitions or the next season’s registration opening dates. PLEASE NOTE: These messages are not exempt from the new Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, and as such, require a member’s express consent PRIOR to you sending them an email.
As of July 1, 2014, all new members to your club will be required to opt-in to receive these types of emails from your club at time of creating their member account. For any existing members, you will be allowed to send them messages through Uplifter’s email manager provided you filter your emails by season and only select seasons from the last two years. By filtering your emails by seasons, the email list generated will only target members that have actually registered for that particular season. Upon registration, you will have implied consent as per section 10, paragraph (9)(a) of the act:
(9) Consent is implied for the purpose of section 6 only if
(a) the person who sends the message, the person who causes it to be sent or the person who permits it to be sent has an existing business relationship or an existing non-business relationship with the person to whom it is sent;
With the definition of an existing business relationship being (from section 10, paragraph (10)(a)):
(10) In subsection (9), “existing business relationship” means a business relationship between the person to whom the message is sent and any of the other persons referred to in that subsection — that is, any person who sent or caused or permitted to be sent the message — arising from
(a) the purchase or lease of a product, goods, a service, land or an interest or right in land, within the two-year period immediately before the day on which the message was sent, by the person to whom the message is sent from any of those other persons;
And the definition of an existing non-business relationship being (from section 10, paragraph (13)(c)):
(13) In subsection (9), “existing non-business relationship” means a non-business relationship between the person to whom the message is sent and any of the other persons referred to in that subsection — that is, any person who sent or caused or permitted to be sent the message — arising from
(c) membership, as defined in the regulations, by the person to whom the message is sent, in any of those other persons, within the two-year period immediately before the day on which the message was sent, where that other person is a club, association or voluntary organization, as defined in the regulations.
Please be sure that when you select the "Transaction & Service Notifications" list, that the message you are sending complies section 6, paragraph (6)(b) or (6)(d) above. It will be the responsibility of your club to ensure that you are sending out emails that comply with the exemption of section 6 in the legislation. We've added a separate resource to the Permissions manager called "Can Send Non Opt Out Messages" so that you can restrict which administrator groups are allowed to send out these specific emails. You will need to enable this permission explicitly within each of your groups (including the Full Admin Group) to be able to send these emails.
How This AFFECTS the NEW MEMBER Signup Process on Uplifter
New members creating accounts from July 1, 2014 onward will now be required to check off if they would like to receive messages from the "News, Upcoming Program & Registration Information" list. You will use this to confirm that you have express consent from your members to send them commercial electronic messages.
How THIS AFFECTS YOUR Club's Existing Members
Beginning July 1, 2014 there was a 3-year transition period during which clubs were still allowed to send emails to all members using implied consent. However, this period is now over and all members must have granted explicit consent in order to receive communications from your club's mailing lists.
MAKING ADDITIONS/EDITS TO YOUR MAILING LISTS
We will be providing this feature in the future to allow you to control your mailing lists. If you would like to add or make changes to your mailing lists, please send us an email at support@uplifterinc.com
CHANGES TO UPLIFTER’S TERMS OF SERVICE
Please note, that Uplifter has made changes to our terms of service for all of our clubs to reflect this new legislation. Although we provide all our clubs with the ability to properly comply with the legislation, it is still the responsibility of each club to properly comply with the legislation. You are also responsible for the contents of any commercial electronic messages that you send to your members.
For more information, please go to Canada's Anti-spam legislation website. Links to the full text of the law can be found here: https://fightspam-combattrelepourriel.ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canada-anti-spam-legislation/en