Enforcing
Canada’s Anti-Spam
Legislation (CASL)

Largest Penalty Issued to an individual under CASL

In January 2019, CRTC staff launched an investigation into a series of high-volume spam campaigns and potential violations of paragraph 6(1)(a) of CASL.

Based on information gathered in the course of the investigation, in March 2021, the Chief Compliance & Enforcement Officer issued a Notice of Violation (NOV), including an administrative monetary penalty of $75,000, to Scott William Brewer for sending commercial electronic messages without the consent of the recipients.

Mr. Brewer sent more than 670,000 emails, promoting affiliate marketing and web marketing businesses. A large number of these emails were sent using a “hailstorm” technique. In this approach, a high number of emails are sent very quickly in order to evade anti-spam detection.

More details are available in a CRTC News Release issued on 29 March 2021.

The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear an appeal of Compufinder's challenge to CASL

In June 2020, the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) upheld CASL’s constitutionality and provided guidance on certain legislative provisions, including the business relationship exemption and the conspicuous publication provision. In March 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to grant leave to appeal.

The case stemmed from a 2015 NOV issued to CompuFinder, which was upheld upon review by the Commission in 2017. In its review decision, the Commission found that the company violated CASL when it sent 317 electronic messages to promote its educational and training services without consent and without a functioning unsubscribe mechanism.

For more information, you can read the FCA Decision.

Long description

• 143 Notices to Produce
• 17 Preservation Demands
• 10 Warning Letters
• 1 Notice of Violation
• $75,000 Administrative Monetary Penalty

Payments and Penalties Under CASL

Between October 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021

That’s 5,560 per week.

Approximately 4,237 of these complaints were submitted using the online form, which represents only about 3% of total complaints. The remainder of complaints were sent by email at spam@fightspam.gc.ca.

The CRTC encourages Canadians to use the SRC’s online form to provide as much information as possible about potential CASL violations. The information provided by Canadians is an essential part of the intelligence the Spam Reporting Centre gathers on spam and electronic threats. Each report is valuable and helps us to enforce CASL.

Reasons why Canadians complain

Long description:

• Software and malware: 3%
• Other: 20%
• Deceptive Marketing Practices: 30%
• Identification: 34%
• Consent for messages: 93%

Note: The total does not add to 100% since Canadians can select more than one category for a complaint.

Complaints about consent issues continue to rise

Looking at submissions from Canadians to the SRC over the last 6 months, complaints about consent issues increased from month to month.

Long description:

Year-Month	Consent for messages	Deceptive Marketing Practices	Identification	Other	Software and malware	Grand Total
2020-10	482	127	148	120	18	895
2020-11	605	173	201	124	16	1119
2020-12	740	227	226	111	18	1322
2021-01	651	259	278	149	18	1355
2021-02	665	219	258	171	16	1329
2021-03	807	291	349	160	27	1634
Grand Total	3950	1296	1460	835	113	7654

Partnerships

Collaboration with International Partners

The CRTC has also forged partnerships with organizations across the globe in order to better fulfill its mandate. The CRTC is part of the Unsolicited Communications Enforcement Network (UCENet). Members from over 26 countries work together to promote international spam enforcement cooperation and address problems relating to spam and unsolicited telecommunications.