20 | LEXPERT • June 2016 | www.lexpert.ca/usguide-corporate/
While a wave of new technology aimed at digitizing the customer experience
flows seamlessly across borders, the regulations governing it do not. In fact, some
Americans might be surprised to discover that Canada – the polite neighbor to
the north – has taken off the gloves when it comes to spam and digital privacy.
Canadian lawyers who work in this area say that what US counsel don't know
can come back and bite their clients.
"US corporate counsel need to be mindful of the fact that Canada's not simply
the 51st state," says George Takach, a senior partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP in
Toronto. "ere is a separate and in some areas quite distinct legal regime north
of the 49th parallel.
"Canadian privacy law, for example, differs in some very important ways from
the US environment, as do our anti-spam laws. While eleventh-hour panicked
phone calls are always interesting, it's better for everyone if US legal counsel loops
in their Canadian counterparts from the beginning when they are doing business
in Canada."
Even companies that have been selling services to Canadians for years can't
afford to become complacent.
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, which came into effect mid-2014, is consid-
ered among the toughest in the world when it comes to regulating commercial
electronic messaging.
CASL, as it's referred to, makes what many US businesses would see as legitimate
everyday activities – things like sending an email message to a customer, design-
ing a new function on the company website or making a mobile app available for
Canada's privacy, anti-spam and research
funding rules pose significant challenges
for US businesses and technology investors
that have their eyes on Canada
BY SANDRA RUBIN
THE DIGITAL
NORTH
ONLINE BUSINESS
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
